THE FAMILY of a woman who suffers from a rare syndrome and who recently suffered a serious relapse say they are hopeful that her condition will improve following her return from London to Cork.
Catherine O'Leary (32) of Ballincollig, Co Cork was diagnosed with "locked-in syndrome" earlier this year after she suffered a stroke during surgery to remove a brain tumour.
"Locked-in syndrome" is a condition in which a patient is aware and awake, but cannot move or communicate due to complete paralysis of nearly all voluntary muscles in the body.
Ms O'Leary was flown to a rehabilitative facility in Putney in the UK from a high-dependency bed at Cork University Hospital in September. Her father Pat hoped the move would improve her quality of life as well as her condition.
Ms O'Leary, who is the mother of an eight-year-old boy, initially responded well to the rehabilitation treatment at the Royal Hospital for Disabilities in Putney.
In early October she suffered a major setback after she suddenly stopped breathing and lapsed into a deep coma.
She was subsequently transferred to St Anthony's Hospital in Sutton, London, where doctors told her family that there was little or no hope for her.
However, she has since regained consciousness and was flown to Cork on Saturday on a special flight after medics said she was well enough to travel.
She will be treated for the foreseeable future at Cork University Hospital.
Ms O'Leary's father, Pat, believes his daughter has improved from the crisis of a few weeks ago.
"Even the nurses and the doctors in St Anthony's in London were saying that she can definitely communicate. More so with us than the doctors because we have been there all the time with Catherine. We keep talking to her. I know she has gone back a couple of steps but hopefully we can bring her forward again. But she can understand us.
"We were told by the neurosurgeon that came in to St Anthony's that she had swelling to the tissue of the brain and during the week, he said the swelling had gone down.
"He couldn't really tell us at that stage how affected Catherine is going to be by this. He will have to wait and see how she is coming around. He was trying to be as positive as he could, the same as ourselves."
Ms O'Leary suffered two strokes during brain surgery in February this year, after which she was diagnosed with locked-in syndrome.
Her father, Pat, has campaigned tirelessly on her behalf. When he realised that a bed was unavailable at a Dublin hospital he arranged for her to be transferred to a specialist hospital in London.
Before her brain tumour operation in February, Ms O'Leary lived a full life, working as a manager in a branch of Subway in Ballincollig, Co Cork.
For three years, she had complained of persistent hiccups until eventually a brain scan showed a tumour "the size of a golfball" on her brain.
Her family have been running fundraising efforts to support her recovery programme - and her brother, Shane, who works in the US, helped raise €12,000 at one event.
Fundraising for Ms O'Leary's long-term care, possibly in the US, continues.
Donations towards her care can be made to the Catherine O'Leary Fund, Permanent TSB, North Main Street, Cork, A/C: 12536790; Sort Code: 99-07-07.