Battle to repair dad's family life after stroke

FUNDS BEING RAISED TO HELP HIM COMMUNICATE WITH HIS DAUGHTER

- JAMES CARTLEDGE

Martin Orme was living in Dubai with his wife Lyka and their daughter Isabella (above) when he collapsed last Christmas. He is now in a Birmingham hospital

THE family of a dad being treated in a Birmingham hospital after a headache turned out to be a major stroke say they do not know "which parts of him we'll get back".

Martin Orme, 41, was living in Dubai with his wife, Lyka, and their then five-year-old daughter, Isabella, when he felt a severe headache on December 15, 2024 while putting up the Christmas tree.

He awoke at 1am, took three steps out of bed and collapsed.

He was rushed to the nearest hospital, where he was given a cranioscopy, which found he had suffered a haemorrhagic stroke.

Martin was then placed in a coma for ten weeks, and remains unable to walk or speak some ten months on.

In April, Martin was able to return to the UK, to New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton where he was treated in ICU for multiple, life-threatening infections.

Martin has been in a stable condition since July and is currently in Birmingham's Moseley Hall Hospital, which specialises in brain injuries.

His brother, Carl, 42, quit his job as a senior manager in education to care for Martin and his unsupported family. He is raising funds to buy equipment that will allow the nonverbal Martin to communicate with his six-year-old daughter and the outside world.

"We are rife with uncertainty about what can or can't be done for him," Carl said. "The reality is, he is unlikely to ever walk again. We're not sure which parts of him we'll get back.