Sunday evening update

We have just returned from visiting Jim in Auckland hospital intensive care unit. Jim was less sedated than this afternoon, and is now beginning to respond well to commands. Visits to ICU patients are in pairs, and so our family does it in three sets. But today Brigie stayed the whole time, and Rose, Flora, Pearl and I went in one by one.

For the first time in six days, all of us saw his eyes open completely and appear to contain some recognition of his family. Brigie told him where he was, and that he had been injured in an accident. He seemed to try and speak to us, but this is impossible with a tracheostomy, and led to an irritated then distressed expression. Jim nodded his head almost imperceptibly when I asked if he understood. Seeing such small signs of cognition are like miracles to us. Jim also gripped each of our hands, and squeezed them hard in response to questions. I think he was reassured to see all of us.

It was a long visit this evening, and very hard to leave him behind at the ICU at 8 pm. But it was very tiring and emotionally draining for all of us, especially Jim. He will rest tonight and we are all looking forward to seeing him again tomorrow. We are hopeful that he will move out of ICU by the middle of the week.

Our family is so grateful for all the positive messages and prayers of Jim's friends and relations. He has a lot of thank yous to deliver, and it is looking increasingly likely that he will be able to do this in person. We continue to be positive that this will happen.