Mansfield star 'on the road to recovery', says mother

Richard was placed into a medically induced coma last week after falling ill on a plane from Los Angeles, with what is believed to double pneumonia.

He is now starting to recover from his coma after coming around yesterday (July 13), however he is not fully conscious at present.

Christine Bacon said: “He was having a lot of oxygen ventilation, a lot more than a normal person would need, through a pipe, as well as lot of anti-biotics.

“They kept him like that for a week and we hadn’t left his side, at one point we really felt we might lose him.

“That went on until his temperature went down and then on Wednesday they did a tracheostomy to improve his breathing and bring him off sedation.

“It was such a relief when he opened his eyes, although his not responding to us very well yet we can see that he is getting better.

“The doctors have said that he is very distressed and confused after being in a coma for a week, which you can understand, and that we need to keep talking to him and reminding him of where he is.

“There’s a long way to go yet, but this is a very positive step and it has eased by mind.”

Richard shared a photograph of himself in hospital last Thursday with lots of tubes and wires in his body, joking on the NHS’s 70th Anniversary that he ‘wouldn’t miss the party’.