Product Description

Sometimes a family's love can achieve the impossible...On 12th October 1995, Mavis Marsh answered her door to the news every parent dreads most. 'It's your son,' the policeman told her. 'He's been in an accident.' Only hours earlier, Matthew had been set for a dazzling future but, in one terrible night, a devastating tragedy altered everything. Days later, Mavis found herself standing at her son's bedside as doctors told her to give up all hope. According to them, the damage to Matthew's brain was too severe for him to recover, and the boy she had known and loved was gone forever. But Mavis and her husband, Keith couldn't give up on their only son. And refusing to accept the diagnosis, they started to work with Matthew themselves, desperately urging their comatose son to fight. For months they tried, to no avail. But then, almost half a year later, he suddenly started to respond...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #221927 in Books
• Published on: 2006-08-17
• Original language: English
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 320 pages

Customer Reviews

An excellent book
This book is excellent, Mavis Marsh has written a wonderful yet very sad story on the journey she and her family have been through with her son Matthew. I feel it emphasises the lack of services and support for people who suffer brain injury and her story makes you appreciate what you have and what a struggle her and her family have been and are still going through.

Heartbreaking story
I have only just put this book down and it brought me to tears. I admire the family's determination to get the best for their son, especially Keith. I agree 100% with J. Kisseih's previous words and found the words from Sterile exactly that....STERILE....how nasty to say "it didn't stop him falling off the roof". I am an amateur astronomer and many times have gone up on the roof to gaze at the stars when I lived in America and I can understand why Matthew would want to. God bless him. He and his family have every right to be proud of his PhD in Astrophysicist! I also have experienced the NHS at my local hospital The Lister, Stevenage and found the same unacceptable treatment - leaving me laying in my own vomit for 24 hours - after having rung 3 different times for help. I am so glad that Matthew has gained back such a good quality of life compared to what the doctors said about him being a cabbage. I wish him and his family all the best, may God Bless you all and thank you for showing us all never to give up hope, faith and love.

Good account of a layman's experience.
I picked this book as it was a true account and had some bearing on my own experience of a family member who had suffered a head injury. My sister was in a car accident in 2000 and was rendered disabled with much the same conditions as Matthew and time scale towards a plateau of recovery.

I can see why the proffesionals got sulky with Mavis! The ICU ward of a hospital is a closed unit with access only granted by invitation. Mavis and her Husband Keith were heavy smokers who by their own admission went for a 'ciggie' about every 30 minutes. Can you imagine the hassle to the ICU nurses every half and hour having to break off their duties to let them back in to the ward, stinking of cigarettes and carrying any amount of germs? I am not really surprised Matthew contracted MRSA with all the people from the outside world around him - but a lot of time has passed since then and a lot more is understood about MRSA.

Mavis mentioned Headway just once when she went to a meeting in Leeds General. She made it sound like a mother's meeting but infact Headway is a national Charity that offers tremendous support and information to the carers of brain injured people. They could have got a lot more out of this Charity if they had tried - but it seemed they didn't bother! A Good idea would have been to mention this for the readers who might just need it in future, again not a word......

Head injuries occur to all people and all walks of life. Some like Matthew can cope fairly well, others cannot. Mavis liked to inform the reader that her son was a talented man who had accomplished a PhD and was an Astrophysicist, this grated a bit after the 6th time she mentioned it! It didn't stop him falling off a roof though, did it?

Matthews families experiences and the treatment he received is basically the same as my family member received, through ICU to rehabiliation therapy, the only difference being that my sister stayed at a centre for Head Injuries for a year as an in-patient, developing skills needed for integration back into society.

A good read for anybody who either has experience of coping with a person with head trauma,(they will find empathy with Mavis) or needs to read a basic, true account of life dealing with such a case.