[ad_1]
On March 1, 2020, when the 19-year-old was hit by a car in central England, the UK had recorded just 23 cases of a worrying new virus. The vast majority of COVID-19 infections were still confined to China, and the United States had only confirmed one death.
Sporting events, bars and restaurants were teeming with life. In Flavill’s home country that day, the front pages of the newspapers were not leading with the spread of the disease, but with Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s announcement that he and his fiancee were expecting a child .
Weeks later the world had stopped, but everything that happened since March 1 has happened to Flavill – even though he caught COVID-19 while unconscious.
Now the teenager has started to come out of a 10 month coma, delighting his family but confronting them with a new question: How do you explain a year like no other?
SEE ALSO: Researchers who spent months on isolated island return to COVID-stricken society
“When he gets out of this life will not be at all as he knows it,” Flavill’s aunt Kate Yarbo told CNN. “How do you describe it? I think it’s going to be a shock. We’re all dealing with it, I’m not sure you can really describe how this pandemic is feeling.”
The ordeal of the family began just days before the rapid attack on cancellations, deaths and lockdowns.
Flavill, a cricket and hockey fan, was preparing to visit Buckingham Palace in May to receive the Duke of Edinburgh’s Youth Award. But a collision with a car left him with a traumatic brain injury to the back of his head, and he was rushed to a hospital in Leicester, in central England.
Three weeks later, Britain was on lockdown, meaning only his mother, Sharon Flavill, was allowed to visit him in the hospital, remotely, dressed from head to toe with equipment protection.
“Life was put on hold and then the lockdown happened,” Yarbo said.
His mother is still waiting to be able to touch her son, who is now recovering in a care home. The pandemic has significantly affected Flavill’s hospital care, but it is not known whether he understood his family’s explanations as to why.
“How scary of [have nurses] in PPE when you don’t understand what’s going on? Yarbo asked.
“He will only understand it through our ability to describe it and through reporting. The horror,” she said. “So many people said it was like sitting down watching a sci-fi movie, right? You couldn’t write the pandemic like a movie. That’s exactly what it’s going to be. for Joseph, never having to go through the fear and the emotion that we’ve all had, because when you look at her afterwards, hopefully a lot of the fear will go away. “
SEE ALSO: Man returned in time for Christmas after battling COVID-19 for 8 months at Houston hospital
‘You want to hold his hand’
The rest of the family spoke to Flavill virtually, trying everything they could to stimulate her brain through video and audio, enlisting the help of relatives and friends through the fundraiser page. of Joseph’s Journey Fund.
“He suffered so much, he had epileptic seizures, it was a horrible traumatic journey for him,” Yarbo said. And then, in the last few days and weeks, a breakthrough happened.
First, Flavill smiled when she was played an audio recording in an airplane cockpit. Then came a Zoom call with his aunt. “I joked with him that one day he can talk and remember our vacation in Cornwall. I said, ‘Do you promise me your first word will be mushy? “” Said Yarbo, referring to the famous Cornish Paste. “And then he blinked. Something just turned in my stomach. I said ‘Did you blink on purpose?’ and he blinked twice. Then we knew he was communicating. “
Since then, his progress has been rapid.
“The past week has been amazing,” Yarbo said. “He can’t speak yet, but clearly he’s starting to take control of his limbs, and his sense of humor is there, he’s starting to laugh at the jokes. We’re all really stunned, it’s amazing what the brain can do. “
Flavill contracted COVID-19 while in a coma, which prevented him from receiving a vaccine, but he will soon be eligible for a vaccine, his aunt says.
Her family also discussed how to tell her about the news of the past 10 months, once he was fully able to understand her.
“We will be guided by personal feelings: did you know we weren’t there?” she says. “It’s a great thing for his mother to deal with emotionally, looking at him through a screen. You want to hold his hand, you want to be there all the time.”
Flavill will be one of the very few adults in the western world to learn about the pandemic secondhand. But he will also learn of the efforts of his family and friends in their quest to communicate with him again.
They raised nearly 33,000 ($ 45,000) to cover the costs associated with his care once he was discharged from the hospital, many of which are still unknown. “No one knows what the long term impact will be, but we do know the trip could be long and expensive,” they wrote on their website.
His mother, Sharon, received audio and video clips from supporters to play her son, some of which may have helped his progress, his aunt says. And the family said they had another goal: to raise awareness about the impact of traumatic brain injury.
“The thing with Joe is he’s always been such an energetic force. He’s the most determined person,” Yarbo said. “Who knows how far he’s going to go now.”
The-CNN-Wire & 2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.
The video above is taken from a previous story.
[ad_2]
Source link