Cameron Tunbridge <<cameron.tunbridge>>
sends this note from Heather Mull:

UPDATE ON SWISS NIC:

As many hang glider pilots will now be aware, on 24th December Swiss Nic
(Roberto Nichele) had a failed hill launch in NSW Hunter Valley, Australia.
First aid was given on site by Conrad Loten (hang glider pilot and emergency
room doctor at John Hunter hospital) and Nic was transferred to the John Hunter
hospital by helicopter. He sustained internal trauma to the head and was put
into the intensive care unit in an induced coma and on a ventilator.

With some progress over the last days in the form of responding to voices with
hand squeezes, Conrad recommended friends visit Nic to keep the stimulation
process going. Mart and I have been visiting Camo, so today (the 28th) we
contacted the hospital and all went to visit this afternoon. The timing was
great, as when we arrived they were busy taking his ventilator tube out for the
first time. We were able to see Nic straight away and spent a couple of hours
with him. He was groggy and it was obviously difficult for him to open his eyes,
but he opened them on several occasions and recognised who we were -
communicating to questions mainly with hand gestures and a reasonably firm hand
grip. He slept much of the time whilst his body copes with the recovery process.

The whole time we were there, Nic was able to breathe normally apart from some
supplemental oxygen, but he even took that mask off for a while when the tube
came out. He has a chest infection as well, so his physiotherapist was wanting
him to take deep breaths as often as possible and cough to get the muck up from
his lungs. He could understand everything we were saying to him and even managed
to whisper and understand some words in four different languages. His sense of
humour is still intact, as when Mart made a comment about the difficulty of the
Swiss language, Nic slowly lifted his hand and definitely gave him the "bird."
Nic sparked up noticeably when the guys took some photos of him for his
girlfriend Natalia and the doctor also contacted Natalia while we were there.
Natalia was able to talk to Nic.

To summarise what the doctor said to us, Nic has had a severe impact to the head
which will take a long recovery - many months, and the extent of the recovery
depends on the individual. Plans are already under way for his medically
accompanied return to Switzerland by aeroplane (he also has travel insurance).
If all goes well, this may be within the next week. We were very happy to see
the amount of progress he made just today - breathing on his own again and
communicating a little with us. As we left, Tish and Chris came in to visit
again. So if you live in the area, the doctor suggested a roster of visitors
could be made up so that he is getting lots of stimulation over the coming days.
Things certainly looked much more positive for Nic today than several days ago,
and we'll all keep our fingers crossed now for a speedy and full recovery.