A happy Shannon pictured on a day out when she was younger.A happy Shannon pictured on a day out when she was younger.

A smile slowly spreads over the face of nine-year-old Shannon as she joins her grandfather and sings the hymn dedicated to St Lawrence.

This was the tune she heard when, two years ago, she woke up from a six-week coma – laughing.

“Finally, after weeks of being in hospital, my dad and aunt were singing to her, the hymn sung during the Vittoriosa feast, and she suddenly started laughing,” Shannon’s mother, Diane Depasquale, says.

Shannon’s grandfather, Joseph Depasquale, adds: “And the more she laughed, the more we cheered.”

The family had spent weeks by Shannon’s side: singing to her, dancing, reading and decorating her hospital room with her favourite things. They were determined not to give up – and it paid off.

Doctors had told them that, if Shannon ever woke up from the coma, she would be in a vegetative state. But, two years down the line, the little girl has been working hard at relearning everything including walking and talking.

I’m trying to walk. I’m trying hard and hard

“I’m trying to walk. I’m trying hard and hard,” Shannon says as she sits on her mother’s lap surrounded by her grandparents, aunts and other relatives.

The family met, as is their tradition, on Good Friday to prepare Easter figolli together. It was this time, two years ago, that Shannon was taken to hospital.

During the night she got a headache and asked her mother to take her to hospital – something was wrong with her shunt. It had been inserted in her brain, to drain fluid blocked by a cyst, when she was two. But she was leading a normal life.

When her mother took her to hospital she suffered a seizure. Later that day the family were informed Shannon suffered several cardiac arrests during surgery and she was administered the last rites. Shannon was put on life support.

“She fell unconscious. She was in a coma,” her mother recalls as she bursts into tears only to be comforted by Shannon who gently says: “It’s OK, mama.”

Over the next couple of weeks Shannon underwent several interventions. At some point she suffered brain damage and remained in a coma. Doctors said she would “not come back the same way”. “You know Shannon as a normal child doing gymnastics, laughing, dancing, singing. And when you see her like that, you can’t accept it. It’s too hard,” her mother says.

She refused to give up. Together with her parents and sisters, she worked round the clock to stimulate Shannon. Then, after six weeks, Shannon woke up laughing. But this was not the end of the ordeal. After having to undergo another surgery to remove a blockage to her throat she went blind for a month.

“Even though Shannon survived, the old Shannon went away and I had a baby again. She had to start all over again.

“We keep pushing her and she’s very determined. She wants to learn how to walk again,” Ms Depasquale says adding that Shannon has been attending regular rehabilitation and physiotherapy.

Throughout all this Ms Depasquale and her family searched for stories of hope.

“In a time of trauma you want people to be there. We were looking for stories of anyone who had been in the same situation and came out OK. “We found nobody. We needed other stories,” she says.

“It is because of this that she is sharing her message of hope through the media and on the Facebook support page Survivors Malta. Shannon’s a miracle. Her eyesight came back. She’s getting there.

“We can’t believe it,” she smiles as she looks at Shannon who has something to say: “Happy Easter, friends.”

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