There are rehabilitation consultants telling families like ours they should save their money and take some time out for themselves, instead of wasting it on physiotherapy for their injured family member.

They believe physiotherapy is wasted on persons with severe acquired brain injury (sABI). In other words, they believe that the ‘wonder drug‘ (= physical activity) their professional body, the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), and the Government are prescribing to everybody else would be wasted on sABI survivors.

Their reaction when presented with evidence that the “wonder drug” does actually work with sABI survivors is like saying:

I am not Christopher Steele but I (also?) have some video evidence. Only much more relevant and much more interesting than any video from a Moscow Ritz Hotel Room could ever be.

There is tons of video evidence  – here are just two short clips from someone who has been written off by the ‘system’.

The first one is about head control – really difficult stuff and something Pádraig was not able to do for years but recovered because of regular and professionally directed exercise.

The second is about turning his head – also something Pádraig had not been able to do for years and now does, not just when he is asked to do it but, more importantly, also when he likes to do it.

There are other clips about Pádraig moving voluntarily his fingers, his hands, his arms, his feet, his legs, and, more recently, his hips. And, as you will have guessed, this is not just about being able to move, but to move when he is asked to make particular movements.

Not sure about the news relating to the famous American soon-to-be president – but the news relating to what can be achieved with ongoing, targeted, professional physiotherapy are certainly neither fake nor phony – and they did happen. No matter what the doctors say (who are, needless to say, not physiotherapists).

Finally, just to make sure he’ll keep going, literally, Pádraig today went to the Intreo Centre in Parnell Street to get his electronic ID card which will allow him to travel around Ireland: free and with a companion.

And here he is: getting his picture taken and signing his new card.

There’ll be nothing stopping him now!