6:40pm Monday 1st February 2010
By Will Carson
A MAN left for dead in a sickening attack in a Hampshire park has woken from a coma – and is defying doctors by communicating with his mum.
Scott Speirs lay unconscious for more than a year following a vicious attack by Adam Stebbing and Liam Edwards in which the pair stamped on his head more than a dozen times.
Eighteen months ago doctors predicted the father of one would never be able to interact with other people.
But Scott – who is still confined to a wheelchair, cannot talk and requires 24-hour care – has impressed medics with his progress.
It has been a huge boost for Scott’s family, including his ten-year-old son Charlie.
Mum Sue described him as “a million times” better than he was following the brutal attack in 2007, which left him severely brain-damaged.
Speaking to the Daily Echo at Glenside Manor, a specialist neurological rehabilitation centre on the outskirts of Salisbury, where Scott now lives, Sue, 58, said: “It wouldn’t be obvious to anyone who doesn’t see him regularly but he is a million times better than he was.
“He is starting to communicate more, which shows his brain is still working.”
During the trial of Stebbing and Edwards for attempted murder, consultant neurosurgeon Antonio Belli, who treated Scott at the Wessex Neurological Unit at Southampton General Hospital, told jurors Scott was unlikely to ever be able to communicate or interact with other people.
Sue, who lives in Lordshill, Southampton, said: “I was always convinced though that Scott could hear me and now I have been proved right.
“It is heartbreaking not to be able to have a proper conversation with my son but at least he can communicate now in some way.”
Scott, who lived in Bevois Valley, communicates mainly by looking at one of two large cards – a green tick for yes and a red card for no.
But he is also able to use a board with letters on to spell out words, including his name, the word “mum” and his favourite football team – Saints.
Sue,who visits Scott twice a week, said: “Doctors really don’t know how much further he will progress, but the feeling is that he still has more to give.”
Despite his limited movement, Scott is taking part in a special triathlon at the end of February to raise money for brain injury charity Headway.
SUE asked the Daily Echo for help in her bid to improve Scott’s memory.
We were delighted to supply team photos of Saints from our picture archive, as well as old copies of The Pink sports paper from before the attack.
Sue said: “I don’t follow football so I don’t have a clue who the players are, but there’s a chance that Scott might recognise them. He has supported Saints all his life and knew everything about them.”
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