UK teenager wakes up from 10-month coma with no knowledge of COVID-19 pandemic

Joseph Flavill, a 19-year-old emerged from a 10-month long coma and has no knowledge of the novel coronavirus outbreak despite having caught the disease twice, reports The Guardian. The teenager was hit by a car reportedly while walking in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire on March 1, 2020, which was just three weeks before UK imposed the first national lockdown to curb the drastic spread of COVID-19. Flavill spent months in a coma after suffering a traumatic brain injury but slowly began recovering and eventually started responding. 

His aunt, Sally Flavill Smith told the media outlet that the 19-year-old won’t know anything about the pandemic that has already claimed more than 103 million lives across the globe. Sally also disclosed that “he’s been asleep for 10 months” and even though his awareness has started to improve, the family doesn’t “know what he knows”. She also said “I’ve got no idea” how Joseph is going to react when he will fully understand the present situation especially when she herself wouldn’t have believed if someone told her about the last year when the world went standstill because of the pandemic.

Sally told the media outlet, “I just don’t know where to start with it. A year ago if someone had told me what was going to happen over the last year, I don’t think I would have believed it. I’ve got no idea how Joseph’s going to come to understand what we’ve all been through.”

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Family is trying to explain Joseph over video calls

As per the report, Flavill family is trying to explain Joseph over video call because they are unable to be with him in person due to COVID-19 restrictions. However, they have not attempted to explain the scale of the COVID-19 pandemic. While talking to the media outlet, Sally said that when Joesph is in his room “he’s not going to have any idea why he’s there”. Nevertheless, the family has been trying to break it down to him why they can’t be with him or hold hands because of COVID-19.

Further, Sally reportedly also said that they are “trying to keep it as simple as possible” and noted that they do not have time to go into the COVID-19 pandemic’s huge explanation because “it just doesn’t feel real does it?”. Joseph’s aunt said that “ When he can actually have the face-to-face contact, that will be the opportunity to actually try to explain to him what has happened”.

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