Calabria, in the southern toe of Italy, is one of Europe's poorest regions, crippled by organised crime and an unemployment rate of more than 20 per cent.

But it is also home to the Sant' Anna Institute of Crotone, a centre of medical excellence which over the last 18 years has helped 1,200 people emerge from comas, more than anywhere else in the world in the same period.

Sant' Anna was founded in 1996 when Giovanni Pugliese, a wealthy local entrepreneur, decided to convert his private school into a hospital for coma patients. But the future of this success story, which is run as an independent private clinic but relies entirely on public financing, is now threatened by Italy's public finance problems.

Under pressure to curb the euro zone's second largest public debt successive Italian governments have slashed funding for regional authorities by 10 billion euros in the last five years. The regions in turn have reined in one of the largest items on their own budget: health spending.

Sant' Anna, with its cutting edge, patented equipment and innovative research, is in trouble. Over the past four years, the centre has reduced its staff to 200 people from 250. The cuts have affected mainly nurses, although the centre has also had to rein in it's research department.

In 2007, Maria's son Vicenzo fell into a coma after a horrific motorbike accident. Maria is hugely grateful to Sant' Anna, she feels in some way her son has returned to her.

"The nearness of their mother greatly helps in their recuperation, they don't feel abandoned," Maria explained.

"And day-by-day they are shown affection, every caress is worth a lot, every hug, Maria said with tears in her eyes.

"It has been seven and a half years that I've been close to my son, and he has shown good signs of recuperation - he doesn't talk, but when he sees me, his eyes follow me, he hugs me, so for me these signs from my son are really delightful," she added.

Some patients recover enough to eventually be treated at home because of an innovative project launched by the clinic in 2013, named Oberon where doctors monitor their patients remotely, offering support and advice by computer or telephone.

Giovannina Caprara has been drifting in and out of consciousness ever since an inter-city bus smashed into the small car she was driving on her way to work at a local bakery. She is still unable to speak, swallow or move any part of her body more than a few centimetres.

Thanks to the Oberon project, after spending a year at Sant' Anna, in 2011 she moved back home - a small cottage full of pictures of saints - looked after with great affection by her husband Domenico and daughter Maria Teresa. Her vital signs are monitored remotely by the clinic 40 miles away.

She is one of 43 patients being treated under the Oberon project and it could change the way coma patients are treated everywhere with huge cost savings.

Giovannina is in a state described as an unresponsive wakeful syndrome. Sometimes she seems to smile and even laugh. She has made progress that excites her family but most outsiders would consider insignificant.

"Keep in mind, that the awakening is not like you imagine it, or see on the TV, where at a certain point they wake up and tear every single wire off themselves, they get up, drink a cappuccino, no," explained clinic founder and owner Giovanni Pugliese a 65-year-old entrepreneur with a wry smile.

"It's like tiny baby steps, miniscule, very difficult to notice, that last for months and months, years," Pugliese said.

Pugliese, 63, who says he got crucial support from local politicians to get his centre off the ground, now feels worried and isolated. All Calabria's hospitals are required to cut their budgets by the same percentage regardless of their medical or economic performance.

That means the Sant' Anna, whose recovery rates for coma patients are around 20 per cent higher than the Italian average - faces the same cuts as any other hospital in the region.

Currently housing 148 patients, staff at the specialised coma reawakening clinic are all proud of their achievements, they follow their patients' baby steps, constantly monitoring and encouraging, hoping against hope that their heart warming work will be recognised and they will receive the funding they need to move forward and not have to take a step back.

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