A British teenager fell into a coma for 10 months before the pandemic.Now he is awake in a new world

On March 1, 2020, when a 19-year-old child was attacked by a car in central England, the United Kingdom recorded only 23 cases of a new virus of concern. The majority of COVID-19 infections are still confined to China, with the United States confirming only one death.

Lively sporting events, bars and restaurants. In Flaville’s home country that day, the newspaper’s top page was led by announcing that Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his fiancé were expecting a child, rather than an epidemic of the disease.

A few weeks later, the world stopped, but everything that happened after March 1 passed Flavil, despite catching COVID-19 when unconscious.

Now teenagers are starting to get out of a 10-month coma and uplifting their families, but face new questions. How would you describe a year like no other?

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“When he gets out of this, life won’t let him know it at all,” Flaville’s aunt Kate Yabo told CNN. “How would you describe it? I’m shocked. We’re still working on it. I don’t know if we can really explain how this pandemic feels.”

Family trials began just days before the rapid onslaught of cancellations, deaths, and blockades.

Cricket and hockey fan Flaville was preparing to visit Buckingham Palace in May to collect the Duke of Edinburgh’s Youth Achievement Award. However, a car crash caused him a traumatic brain injury behind his head and was taken to a hospital in Leicester, central England.

Three weeks later, Britain was blocked. That is, only his mother, Sharon Flavill, was allowed to wear protective equipment and visit him in a remote hospital.

“Life was interrupted and then a blockade occurred,” Yabo said.

His mother is waiting until it is safe to touch her son, who is currently recovering in a care facility. The pandemic had a major impact on Flavir’s hospital care, but it’s unclear if he understood the family’s explanation for why.

“How scary is it? [have nurses] If you don’t know what’s going on with PPE? “Yabo asked.

“He will only understand it through our ability to explain it and news articles. Fear,” she said. “Many people say it’s like sitting while watching a science fiction movie. I couldn’t write a pandemic as a movie. It’s exactly the same for Joseph, without having to experience horror. And the emotions we all had. Hopefully when we look at it later, many fears will disappear. “

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“You want to hold his hand”

The rest of the family virtually talked to Flavil, trying everything he could to stimulate his brain through video and audio, with the help of relatives and friends. Joseph’s Journey Fundraising page.

“He is suffering from such pain and has seizures. It was a horrific traumatic journey for him,” said Yabo. And in the last few days and weeks, breakthroughs have occurred.

First, Flaville smiled when he played the audio recorded in the cockpit of the plane. Next came a zoom call with my aunt. “I was joking with him that he would be able to speak someday, and I remembered the Cornwall holiday.” Can you promise that the first words will be pasty? “Yabo celebrity Said, referring to. Cornish paste. “Then he blinked. Something turned around in my stomach. I said,” Did you blink on purpose? ” And he blinked twice. Then we found out that he was communicating. “

Since then, his progress has been rapid.

“Last week was great,” Yabo said. “He can’t speak yet, but obviously he’s starting to control his limbs, his sense of humor is there, and he’s starting to laugh at jokes. We’re all really surprised. It’s amazing what the brain can do. It should be. “

Flavir was unable to get the vaccine because he caught COVID-19 in a coma, but his aunt says he will soon be subject to jabs.

His family also discussed how to talk to him about the news of the last decade once he was able to fully understand it.

“We are guided by personal emotions. Did you know we weren’t there?” She said. “It’s a big thing for his mom to manage emotionally while looking at him through the screen. You want to hold his hand, you always want to be there.”

Flaville will be one of the few adults in the western world to learn about second-hand pandemics. But he also learns how long his family and friends spent on their quest to re-communicate with him.

They raised nearly 33,000 ($ 45,000) to support the costs associated with his care after he was discharged, many of which are still unknown. “No one knows what the long-term consequences will be, but we know that the journey can be long and expensive,” they wrote on their website.

His mother, Sharon, received audio and video clips from the applicant to play to his son. Some of them may have contributed to his progress, says his aunt. The family said they had another purpose to raise awareness about the effects of traumatic brain injury.

“What about Joe is that he has always been such a force of energy. He is the most determined person,” said Yabo. “Who knows how far he is going now?”

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