The 49-year-old Tamworth man is out of a coma and talking to family, after being transferred to recover in Tamworth hospital.

Speaking to The Leader, the family of the man, who does not wish to be identified, said they were overwhelmed with the support from the community.

“He’s extremely emotional, it was touch and go there for a while but he’s progressing well,” Dom, the man’s brother, said on Friday.

“The community support, he thinks it’s amazing.”

The 49-year-old suffered serious head injuries and bruising and lacerations to his body after he was allegedly set upon by a 17-year-old boy just before 5am last Saturday, as he left work at the Crust and Cream Bakery in Robert St. He was flown to John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle on Saturday and placed in a coma.

“Nothing prepares you for that,” Dom said on the phone call that his brother was in intensive care.

“There was limited information, only that he had been bashed, he’d been repeatedly kicked and they said he wasn’t in a good way. So we just jumped in the car [in Queensland] and headed straight down to the hospital.”

Dom said the first he saw of his brother was late-Saturday.

“It’s extremely confronting to see the tubes down the throat, the bruising, he was black and blue all over,” he said. The family have praised doctors, the medical staff at both Newcastle and Tamworth hospitals, along with police.

“At the moment he’s going through a lot, he’s struggling to walk, his memory has been affected and he has a lot of bruising, it’s a day-by-day sort of thing, but he’s getting better,” Dom said. 

“The doctors, even the police, they’ve all been really good. It’s one of those things, nothing prepares you for this. 

“It’s something that you don’t envisage that you will see your older brother like that [in the hospital bed] and you sort of see it on the news but no one really knows what it’s like until it happens.”

Dom said his family will remain in Tamworth to support his brother who faces a long road of rehabilitation to recover. 

A 17-year-old remains in juvenile detention on a charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and will return to court next week.