Four years ago Jason Clarke lay struggling for life in a Dublin hospital, badly brain-damaged after having been hit with a bottle, with few believing he would live.
"Doctors told me then that it would be better to let him die -, that nothing could be done for him," said his father, Frank, a painter perhaps best known for his afternoon television appearances.
Yesterday, however, his 35-year-old son walked unsteadily, but with an occasional smile, using a support bar following months of treatment in the Chinese National Rehabilitation Centre in Beijing.
Since his arrival at the clinic last May, when he could barely stand, let alone walk, he has had six sessions of treatment daily, using Chinese and Western-style medicine.
Yesterday, Mr Clarke was visited by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, at the 500-bed clinic that has 1,000 staff, during the opening day of a week-long trade mission to China.
Now, his example could offer hope to other seriously injured Irish people.
"We would like to get the Minister for Health, Ms Harney, into the equation," said the Irish Wheelchair Association's (IWA) Mr Seamus Thompson.
Following his injury, Mr Clarke jnr spent time in Beaumont, Loughlinstown and the Royal Hospital in Donnybrook, Dublin, before being transferred a London hospital.
His brother, Clive, told The Irish Times: "The Irish hospital staff are great, but the system is so frustrating. The whole hospital system seems to be wrong, to say the least.
"Here he gets up to six physiotherapy sessions every day, along with music therapy and other things. At home, he would be lucky to get one of them a week," he said.
Helped, no doubt, by low local salaries, the rehabilitation centre can offer high levels of care for little more than €600 per week, including the cost of Mr Clarke's private room.
Each night he is in Internet contact with members of his family using voice-activated technology, and with the help of his full-time carer, Zhao Yang.
The story of Jason Clarke, one of bad luck, a family's love, bravery and, above all, hope in the face of harrowing challenges, is one of extraordinary coincidences.
Before his injury he was a physiotherapist in the Priory Clinic in Stillorgan, Dublin, while his father had helped to raise funds for the wheelchair association for 30 years.
"I never thought that I would need them for one of my own family one day," Mr Clarke snr said yesterday. "I never realised until Jason's injury that there was no place for people with strokes at home."
His son came to Beijing last May with the help of the IWA, which has slowly developed ties with Chinese disability organisations since it brought Chinese children on holiday to Ireland a few years ago.
Subsequently, Chinese doctors and physiotherapists have come to Ireland to work with the IWA, up to 10 at a time: "We charge the public for their services, which pays for the services done for our members," said Mr Thompson. The Chinese, he said, are interested in further co-operation with Ireland. "We could have access to 10 beds here if we wanted them at a cost that would be one-eighth that of home," he went on.
The intensity of the treatment, he said, is responsible for the dramatic improvement shown by Mr Clarke. "It shows what can be done if the resources are made available."
Music therapy, in particular, has shown significant results: "He goes into a room with a guy playing a guitar. Once he hears something he likes, you will see him moving.
"The part of the brain that registers music is the last bit to go. Once they can get growth back there it helps to get growth back elsewhere," Mr Thompson said.
So far, Mr Clarke's father and mother, Peggy have each travelled three times to see their son, who will feature in an RTÉ documentary early next year. He will return to Ireland in March. "We hope that he can go into an assisted-living place where he would have a carer because his mother and I won't be around for ever," said his father.