Girl, 5, woken from coma by favourite James Blunt song

Girl, 5, woken from coma by favourite James Blunt song
Daily Mail - UK - UK
... But it was only when the five-year-old's favourite song - You're Beautiful by James Blunt - came on the hospital radio that she finally began to awaken. ...
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After a horrific headfirst fall from a 15ft high balcony, there were fears Claudia De'Alwis might not survive.

For ten days she lay in a coma in hospital, her distraught parents praying at her bedside for a miracle.

But it was only when the five-year-old's favourite song - You're Beautiful by James Blunt - came on the hospital radio that she finally began to awaken.

More • Read the a selection of lyrics to You're Beautiful here

Yesterday, as she continued to make a remarkable recovery, her mother and father said they were convinced that the melody of the singer's Number One hit had helped her pull through.

"Claudia loves You're Beautiful and she used to sing it all the time," said her father Paul, 40. "It was like her theme tune.

"Following the accident, the doctors warned us she might not make it, and after ten days in a coma we were desperately worried that she wasn't going to recover.

"But then the song came on the radio and she started to move for the first time, and we could tell she was starting to wake up.

"It was an unforgettable moment when she opened her eyes and acknowledged us at last.

"Since then it's been tough but she hasn't looked back, she's a real fighter, and I'm sure that hearing the song she loves so much helped her come round."

Claudia, an only child, fell from a first-floor balcony onto a hallway floor while playing at a friend's house last month, suffering a fractured skull.

Her father Paul, a property developer, and mother Gaynor Turner, 40, a bank clerk, live in a bungalow in Burnley, Lancashire, and they fear she was unused to the dangers of heights.

After being stabilised at the accident and emergency unit of her local hospital, she was transferred to Royal Manchester Children's Hospital in Pendlebury where her parents spent ten days at her bedside around the clock praying for her to recover.

"The doctors told us straight away that it was a case of life and death," said Mr De'Alwis. "We broke down when we saw the state of her.

"She was strapped down with tape everywhere so that she couldn't move for her own safety, but she was unconscious anyway.

"The doctors said she might not make it and if she did she might not speak, or may be brain-damaged or paralysed."

But after her remarkable recovery her parents now hope the youngster, who goes to Wellfield Church School, Burnley, will be able to go home in time for her sixth birthday next month.

"She is still paralysed in the right arm and leg, but she is starting to move more and more," said Mr De'Alwis. "She can already walk a few yards and we've been told she should be able to go home in about two weeks' time.

"Claudia is a fantastic, really strong little girl. She has a better social life than I do - she does martial arts, swimming and ballet. That's what we think saved her life, as she is such a fit little girl."

Harrow-educated Blunt, a former cavalry officer, has sold six million copies of the album from which You're Beautiful is taken, Back to Bedlam.

But the 32-year-old has faced accusations that his music is bland while being publicly linked with a series of lovers including socialite Tara Palmer Tomkinson and model Petra Nemcova.

Consultant neurosurgeon Donald Campbell said that while there was no specific evidence that patients are helped by sounds, families often find them a help.