A 15-year-old boy left severely brain damaged after doing a flip off a seaside pier has shown improvement in a video that shows him following his mother with his eyes.
Jack Dolan has also started to wiggle his toes, move his arms and last week looked at his mother Lisa, before saying ‘help’.
The teenager also smiled when his dog Chewbacca jumped onto his hospital bed.
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The heartbreaking footage, released by his family, show how Jack has recovered some function, despite doctors thinking most of his brain was destroyed.
He can now follow sounds and movement and is believed to be in what is known as a Minimally Conscious State – a condition distinct from a coma or vegetative state in that the person affected shows some awareness and can often respond to simple commands.
Jack’s step-father Dave Dolan, who has raised him since he was small, said that Jack will make the journey from Demelza hospice in Sittingbourne, Kent to King’s College Hospital London on Monday, where he will be reassessed.
