A seizure appears to have jolted a former Broughty Ferry man ”back into life” after he suffered a massive brain trauma.
Kevin Skelly was only given a 1% chance of survival when he came off his scooter on the way home from work at a pub in Taipei, Taiwan, in February.
The 46-year-old was in a coma for eight weeks and since coming round has made a huge amount of progress. However, his speech has remained very broken.
But a seizure last Thursday seems to have brought his speech back almost to normal.
Back home in Lochee, Kevin’s older brother Tam (53) said it was terrible hearing initially from Taiwan that Kevin had suffered another apparent setback.
”He took a seizure last Thursday and the next day we were really worried about him,” he said. ”I was terrified when I heard the word ‘seizure’.”
However, the frightening episode seems to have actually had a positive effect.
Tam said: ”The next day Jenny his wife said ‘How are you feeling today’ and Kevin just started speaking. It was like the seizure kicked him back into life.
”When I phoned him on Friday he could actually speak to me for the first time since the day of the accident in February.”
Kevin’s family back home in Dundee have relied on his Taiwanese wife Jenny keeping them informed. Throughout Kevin’s illness, Jenny has kept all his friends and family up-to-date with his progress on Facebook.
She posted from the hospital: ”As you know, Kev had a seizure a few days ago, happened in the middle of the night and scared us … but somehow, after he woke up yesterday morning, I was chatting with him while getting him ready for the rehab class as usual.
”I asked him ‘How do you feel today Kev?’ and he said he didn’t feel well. I wasn’t expecting to get a response out of him so fast.
”Guess this seizure make him talking now … but also he has more opinions now.”
Kevin, who underwent surgery in May to fix a drip in his brain, is now keen to push his rehabilitation along.
Tam said: ”He’s pushing himself at the physio. They can’t get him off the bikes.
”He’s going to be in hospital for another two weeks and then they are trying to get him back to a rehab facility. He is certainly picking up, but he still has a very low voice.”
Tam said his little brother is now determined to get his life back on track.
He said: ”He was saying to Jenny ‘I want to go out, I want to do this and that. I want to have the same life we had before.’ Kevin can’t be any more outgoing than he was before.”
He has made such a recovery that he is able to go to the pub on Sundays to meet up with his Taiwanese and expat friends.
Tam, who flew over with his dad the day after Kevin’s accident, is now hoping to get back over to Taipei in the new year.