Val Hicks has this morning 'phoned me from Spain.

Pete is moving more, and will open his eyes on instruction, but is otherwise not obviously mentally present. He is breathing on his own during the day and is ventilated at night (so will therefore have the mother of sore throats when truly "waking").

The operation (effected within two hours of his admission, try getting that done in the UK) was to relieve fluid pressure on the brain. He had had a headache for two days and initially the local clinic diagosed migraine and prescribed painkillers - but within 12 hours of that arranged emergency admission to Valencia hospital. The fluid drained at that stage was observably infected (ie bacterial infection) but that is no longer the case. There is little fliud draining and it does not appear to have any bacterial infection.

No actual virus has been identified, yet, but he is receiving antiviral agents too. Also he is still receiving antibiotics. To me that looks like a major case of "don't know but lets cover all the bases. At one stage he had 12 drips up, but this is now down to 10(!).

A brain-scan will probably be carried out in four to five days time if there is no major improvement by then. Stroke has seemingly been ruled out, and it may (that is only a may) be that the present symptoms are the consequence of the pressure before the operation. It takes time to recover from trauma (including pressure) to the brain - witness the little Hammond creature from Top Gear. If that is all there is to it, there should be steady progress.

Hospital visiting is restricted, patients are logged in and out, and gowned and masked for visiting, under a strict cleaning regime. This may explain why Spain has a zero (or statistically zero) incidence of MRSA and C. Diff.

There is no clue yet as to any cause.

Val is staying with their friends, which is better than being in a hotel and on her own, but it is an 85 kilometer drive to the hospital, and at present the holiday insurance is refusing to pay for the car hire. Pete' daughters are returning to the UK very soon. One of them is a trained military paramedic and her observation is that it looks as if things are improving, slightly.