Matthew Purchase's family say he is progressing slowly, after being shot while holidaying in New Zealand.
Matthew Purchase's family say he is progressing slowly, after being shot while holidaying in New Zealand.
KEY POINTS:
A young British man shot in the head in New Zealand last year has settled into a rehabilitation centre in Dorset, near his parents' family farm, and is progressing slowly.
Last December, Matthew Purchase was critically injured by a shot to the head with a .22 calibre riflewhile in the back of a ute during a hunting trip on a farm at Waotu, near Putaruru in the Waikato.
Mr Purchase, 22, was on a "gap year" after graduating with an agriculture degree and had been rabbit hunting the night he was accidentally shot. The bullet shattered his skull and destroyed the right side of his brain, narrowly missing the brain stem.
The bullet was removed by a surgeon at Waikato Hospital and in February, he flew back to the United Kingdom, to Poole Hospital where he learned how to reuse the left side of his body. He was now able to eat a normal diet, stand with minimal assistance, and sit up without help.
But the epilepsy, which first occurred after the accident, had not improved, and he was a long way from being able to walk, his father said.
"The rate of his progress has slowed somewhat, but there are still encouraging signs to take away at the end of each week of his therapy," Ian Purchase said.
"However, we are now all aware that despite his miraculous recovery so far that he can never regain all that he has lost, but he seems to be dealing with that in a much more positive way than we seem to be able to do at the moment."
Mr Purchase's personality and sense of humour were the same as they were before the accident, and his memories were mostly intact, his father said.
"In fact when we have shown him photos he has been able to identify everyone and when he had a surprise visit in hospital from a Canadian friend he met in New Zealand, he knew who she was straight away which amazed her and us."
Danish tourist Bjarne Jensen, 48, will stand trial in November on a charge of careless use of a firearm causing injury.
