His progress belies the received wisdom that you only have a limited window of time after your spinal trauma in which to recover function.

When you wake from the worst of a spinal trauma, it takes a little while to realise that you've been left behind.

The three deaths were reported at schoolboy level, with causes ranging from head and spinal trauma to cardiac arrest.

As happens so often with spinal trauma, his injuries were different from, but not dissimilar to, mine and, like me, he had the possibility of some recovery.

While doctors hope he will wake from his coma, there are fears that his spinal trauma may not have subsided, so the risks are as great as the rewards.