NSW: Jockey cuddles sister after 10 days in a coma

AAP General News (Australia)
12-25-2008
NSW: Jockey cuddles sister after 10 days in a coma

SYDNEY, Dec 25 AAP - The family of Lachlan Fyfe has received an unexpected Christmas
present when the injured apprentice jockey awoke from a coma to give his sister a cuddle.

The 23-year-old was rushed to Nepean Hospital following a sickening fall in a barrier
trial at Hawkesbury on Monday, December 15.

He was put in an induced coma and attached to a life-support system, a Racing NSW official
said after the fall.

Initial scans did not show any brain injury but doctors described his condition as
serious after the fall from an unraced two-year-old in the last of eight trials.

A spokesman for trainer Graeme Rogerson, to whom Fyfe is indentured, confirmed the
young jockey had "woken up" on Thursday.

"He's woken up twice so far," the spokesman said.

"He gave his sister a cuddle and then went back to sleep again."

Friend and fellow jockey Peter Wells expects Fyfe to recover and return to racing.

"He's such a strong person and such a fighter," Wells told Macquarie Radio.

"And you know he's an extremely talented rider and it would be a shame for him not
to go back to it.

"I'm sure he will, I'm sure he'll get back into it as soon as he can."

Fyfe's family from the NSW Central Coast have remained at the jockey's bedside since
his hospitalisation.

AAP vpm/jj

KEYWORD: GALLOPS FYFE UPDATE

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