In a heartbreaking interview, Kerri-Anne Kennerley has broken down as she opened up about her partner John’s condition and the challenges he’s facing.
John, 72, remains in intensive care at Royal North Shore Hospital following a tragic fall.
“It’ll be a year before you know what he’ll be left with, and we don’t know,” Kerri-Anne told Channel Seven’s Sunday Night program.
John has been diagnosed with incomplete quadriplegia and Kerri- Anne has sadly revealed that a full recovery looks doubtful.
“I’d love to be wrong but I think it would be a miracle.”
“He can’t eat. He’s being fed by a tube. He can’t speak. He can’t breathe. He’s trapped in his mind, he’s trapped in his body. He can’t touch me. All I can do is ever so gently hold his head and one shoulder and kiss him,” she said.
“I want our life back!”
She also revealed in the interview that before John was put into a coma, she was told by surgeons to “have some words with him” and was made to say her final goodbye should he not make it through the surgery.
“I just wake up every day thinking ‘what a nightmare that was!’ But it’s not a nightmare, it’s life. I didn’t want to get out of bed.”
“As exhausting as it is going to the hospital and spending hours and hours there every day, I get very antsy and excited when I go in there because I really look forward to seeing him,” she said.
Having spent every day since the accident at the hospital by his side, Kerri-Anne revealed she’s seen John’s communication skills slowly improve, from pointing to letters on an alphabet chart to being able to mouth words.
“I want him back so bad. I want him to actually be as happy and have the creativity that he’s always loved and enjoyed.”
She then went on to say she had accepted that her life as she knew is now over.
“My life as I knew it is over … That’s history. Life as we knew it, just being able to, you know, walk in the park and just go out to parties – no, that’s gone, it’s over – it just doesn’t exist anymore.”
“This is now a new life, because he is my priority and getting him back home would be the best thing since sliced bread. But that’s way in the future.”
