fake tan woke my boyfriend from a coma

[asian_XL]

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-sto...5875-21230457/

Quick Summary: He woke up.


"UMMM, you touch my Tra La La"

Walking into her boyfriend’s hospital room Jo Ventham must have raised some eyebrows. Smothered in strong-smelling fake tan and perfume she didn’t seem like the usual worried loved-one.

However, just like any other visitor all she wanted was for Tom to wake up from the coma he’d been in for nine days.

And she was desperately hoping her fake tan would help.

“Tom had always moaned about the smell of it,” explains Jo. “And I knew that if he could smell anything at all he’d pick up on that and know I was there.”

And sure enough, three days after embarking on her new strategy, Tom finally began to stir.

It meant the end of days of fear and anxiety for Jo after Tom, a business student and semi-pro footballer, was attacked on a night out and left fighting for life.

Jo, a trainee doctor, had been out with friends when she got a message from Tom’s dad.

Jo, 22, says: “We had both been out with separate groups of friends and I didn’t think it would be anything serious. I thought Tom might have a black eye or a sprained ankle at worst.” Jo headed straight for the hospital in Poole, Dorset. “When his parents, Mike and Karen, met me as I walked in, it dawned on me that this wasn’t a minor problem,” she recalls.

Tom, 23, was in a coma and on a life-support machine. He’d been headbutted by a man after their friends argued.

“He was hooked up to wires and machines with a huge orange collar around his neck,” says Jo. “I saw he had a tube down his throat so he could breathe. I just burst into tears, I couldn’t believe what was happening.”

Tom’s parents and Jo were told his chances of survival were slim and that they may have to prepare themselves to switch off his life-support machine.

Jo says: “It was terrifying, and I was just in a daze.”

As Tom’s worried family gathered at his bedside, doctors told his mum Karen, 48, to prepare for the worst. She says: “The doctors told us that Tom’s head injury was too severe and he wouldn’t make it. They were just going to take him to intensive care and wait for him to pass away.

“But they decided to do a final MRI scan – and that revealed he wasn’t totally brain dead.”

Tom was transferred to a larger hospital in Southampton.

Jo, who has been going out with Tom for three-and-a-half years, says: “He was still in a coma, but we were told he might be able to hear us so to bring in music, or chat to him.

“They also told us he might be able to smell things, so I decided I would try my best to let him know I was with him.”

On her daily visits in July last year, Jo drenched herself in familiar scents – using her favourite shampoo and applying her favourite Nina Ricci perfume.

She then hooked up Tom’s iPod to play their favourite song by the Kings of Leon on repeat, and plastered herself in fake tan. And to her amazement it worked. Tom began to wake up.

“I was so happy,” recalls Jo. “He was moving his arms and legs and the doctors said they might be able to start letting him breathe on his own.”

But it was only the start of a long recovery. He says: “Deep down I knew my family were by my bedside. I recognised Jo was there because although I couldn’t see her I think I could smell her fake tan.

“When she put it on I always moaned about the smell so I’m sure those things definitely helped me to come round.”

But Jo was forced to leave Tom’s side as she had exams to take.

“I absolutely hated it, I was crying my eyes out,” she says. “But my mum said Tom would want me to pass and not have to re-take a whole year.”

And after taking – and passing – her medical exams Jo returned to a big surprise.

“As I looked through the window to Tom’s bed I saw he was awake,” she says.

“He even managed to lift one arm to give me a hug and to whisper to me that he loved me.

“Tears of joy were pouring down my cheeks.”

But the hardest part of Tom’s recovery was yet to come. The attack had affected the left side of his brain.

He was partially paralysed down his right side and admitted to Jo and his family that his brain “was like a 10-year-old”.

He couldn’t speak, eat or even think properly, and Jo was terrified his injuries might spell the end for their relationship. Tom also had a 10in stapled scar running down his head where surgeons drilled into his skull to relieve the pressure on his brain.

“I was terrified his personality might have changed,” says Jo. “What if he could never make me laugh again? And we’d always chatted for hours and had great nights out together.

“I was really worried all that might have been lost.”

But over the next six weeks Tom battled back.

“We would play Connect Four for hours,” says Jo. “It helped him to get his logical thinking back, and he beat me every time!”

Tom’s mum Karen also spent hours reading to him and helping him to use a knife and fork again.

Karen, a nurse, says: “In some ways it was like Tom was a little boy again.

“But he was a grown man, and he did get frustrated when he couldn’t find the right word to say or kick a football.”

But six months after the attack and following dozens of hours of intensive physiotherapy, Tom finally made it out on to the pitch for his team, Hamworthy United.

And in February this year, seven months after the attack, Tarik Bilgic, 22, was found guilty at Bournemouth Crown Court of causing GBH and sentenced to 12 months in jail.

The judge said Bilgic had “deliberately headbutted” Tom and branded the attack “sudden and violent”.

Jo says: “I think it is sad that one act has caused so many people such pain.

“In a lot of ways what happened has definitely made our relationship stronger.

“We’ve talked about moving in together when I finish my course and Tom and I are back to normal, doing the same things we used to.

“But when Tom was in a coma it was the worst time of my life – I was so scared I would lose him.

“Seeing how hard he fought to get his life back makes me feel so proud.

“And now he can never complain about the smell of my fake tan again!”

Are senses a secret trigger?

Tom isn’t the first person to be woken from a coma by a strange trigger.

Last year, Rolling Stones fan Sam Carter woke up after having his favourite song (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction blasted into his ears.

Dr Miriam Stoppard says: “Recently a friend of mine had an accident and went into a coma. I could remember when we were younger we used to listen to the Beach Boys so I took a DVD to the hospital and said to his family they should play the music to him.

“It must be 35 years ago, but he really liked it then. And I can’t attribute it to that but he did come out of the coma shortly after.”

And Dr Andy Eynon, director of the Neurointensive Care Unit at Southampton General Hospital, said: “When a patient is comatose, it is difficult to tell how their brain is responding.

“That is why even while patients may appear asleep we encourage their families to talk to them, and hang up pictures in their rooms.

“Because if part of their brain is active, sounds, sights and even smells can give that extra stimulation that pulls them back into consciousness.”

[hongy]

Nice read. Good to hear a news story that's not about about some guys shooting each other.

[Synaptik]

shes fucking hot

[Vansterdam]

+1 i'd tap that

[miss_crayon]

YAYYY!!!

[Eclypz]

is that a mullet?

[BlackV62K2]

The GF is hot. I'd hit it as well!

[hotjoint]

she's dope

[DC5-S]

nice ape drape

[Presto]

She's a keeper, and she's pretty too.

[TheKingdom2000]

damn she's HOTTT..

and she's a med student..

she can examine me anyday.

[Death2Theft]

Put her in the hot docs thread

[JSALES]

she is smokin'

[BabyblooLexus]

hahah the report itself was a lil lame
but awww great news!

[KingDeeCee]

Originally Posted by Vansterdam

+1 i'd tap that

[ajax]

Originally Posted by Eclypz

is that a mullet?

hahaha yeahh its a euro mullet! hawk on top and mullet in the back.

[AzNightmare]

wow, what a great story!