A British teenager is recovering from a ten-month coma, with apparently no knowledge of the COVID-19 pandemic that rocked the world around him, even though he was twice infected with the virus.
As reported by the Guardian, 19-year-old Joseph Flavill was hit by a car while walking in Staffordshire in the UK on 1 March 2020, when less than 40 cases of COVID-19 were reported in the country. He left behind a traumatic brain injury that left him unconscious for months. During this time, COVID-19 took over the world, and tens of millions of people became infected with the virus, including Joseph, who is believed to have contracted the infection twice in hospital.
He has now allegedly regained consciousness and is starting to show promising signs of recovery, such as answering yes and no by cutting and following basic instructions. But how can anyone catch up in the last year?
“He will not know anything about the pandemic, because he has been asleep for ten months. “His consciousness is starting to improve now, but we only know what he knows,” his aunt, Sally Flavill Smith, told the Guardian.
“I just do not know where to start. If someone had told me a year ago what would happen this past year, I would not have believed it. I have no idea how Joseph is going to understand what we all went through. ”
His family set up a campaign called Joseph’s journey, who raised more than £ 32,000 to support the teenager in his long-term recovery. Due to COVID restrictions, only his mother was allowed to see him so far and she had to be socially distanced and wear a full PVB.
“I think it was really challenging because from Joseph’s point of view, you have someone who is not near you, who carries all that PBT and is obviously not aware that we are in the middle of a pandemic,” his aunt said. . talk to Sky News.
In the first phase of the pandemic, the world had some groups of people unaware of COVID-19. In March 2020 it is has been reported that many seafarers aboard nuclear weapons submarines were kept unaware of the pandemic to prevent them from being morally undermined and kept them focused on their task. Officials working for the United Nations Migration Program also said they encountered many Ethiopian migrants who had been unaware of the pandemic until June 2020.
Also in March, producers of the TV show Big brother in Germany they had the problem of telling their participants about the pandemic in the outside world. Finally, the housemates were told live on air and after being reassured that their loved ones were ready, they decided to stay in the house. After all, a secluded house cut off from the rest of the world was the ideal quarantine situation.
[H/T: The Guardian]