A former Arsenal academy footballer has been left with life-changing injuries after he was "spiked" while out with his friends.
Ex-Gunner Daniel Cain, 23, went into a cardiac arrest while he was on a night out back in June 2020 and has been left tetraplegic.
The qualified electrician's friends performed CPR on him and rang an ambulance when he started to go "a funny colour" and was not responding when they tried to wake him up.
His brain was was being starved of oxygen, and after the emergency services arrived, and 24 minutes of trying to get his heart beating, they finally got a response.
But sadly, his brain and spinal cord were seriously injured as a result of the lack of oxygen and after being taken to hospital he was put into a coma, the Independent reports.
His mum, Tracey Cain, explained: “When I found out I just went into automatic mum mode.
"I phoned his father who was at work and his sister came back from Essex. At around 3-4am in the morning they tried to prepare us that he was not going to wake up but I said to keep trying.
"I wasn’t going to accept he wasn’t going to come around.”
Daniel's family were warned that if he did eventually wake up, it would likely be in a vegetative state.
But after 25 days in a coma he defied the odds by waking up and has been making gradual progress since.
He has been left with short-term memory problems, but Ms Cain says his long-term memory is still intact.
“When he woke up he couldn’t do anything," she said.
"He couldn’t move - he was like a newborn but nurses said he was following them with his eyes, so they said there was ‘someone in there.
“He’s gradually coming back and is improving all the time. His long-term memory, things from childhood, he still remembers all that.”
After more than two years going between hospitals and care homes, Daniel has returned home but needs around the clock care and is in a wheelchair.
Ms Cain added: “Again because I’m his mum, I’m just going to take it on board and do what I can, but it was a real strain,” she said. “Because of Covid I wasn’t really allowed into the hospital to learn from the nurses about different things like lifting and handling and with spinal cord injuries, there are things like bowel and bladder management and the skin is also very sensitive.
“It was just a complete lifestyle change.”
Daniel has now been given the opportunity to walk and stand again through an organisation called Neurokinex, which provides him with intensive rehabilitation therapy.
It is only part-funded by the NHS and costs more than £60 an hour, totaling between £1,008 to £2,016 per month.
A fundraiser has been launched to help pay for treatment.
His mother said: "It’s been very hard for him, on different neurological wards he’s been around stroke victims who are mainly over 50 so there were not many people his age he could relate to.
“He did have counselling where they said he does have PTSD and he has now been diagnosed with low mood, depression and anxiety. He’ll jump at the slightest thing, he needs a lot of reassurance. He needs to know what’s happening now and what’s happening next.
“He responds really well to the physio - that’s like his happy place when he’s exercising. It’s more frustrating when he isn’t able to do it.”
Three years of sessions could cost anywhere between £12,096 to £24,192 per year.
