McShane: five-week coma

THE family of a young woman savagely attacked in America said she is now trying to whisper words, having come out of a coma after more than five weeks.

However, the prognosis for Natasha McShane (23), is still unclear with doctors saying it is a "one day at a time" recovery process.

McShane was set upon by a drug addict wielding a baseball bat last April after a night out with her friend, Stacey Jurich.

Doctors still have to replace a broken piece of her skull before she can be moved. For now, her family has welcomed last week's efforts to make contact, even if her whispers are not entirely ­audible.

"It's probably very frustrating for her, knowing Natasha; I would imagine she is doing her very best," her grandmother Bernadette told the Sunday Tribune.

"She is making good progress, thank God, small paces of progress. She is trying to whisper at the moment. She can't yet but it will come. There is no word on her coming home. A piece of skull has to be put back and that will be done last."

Her parents, Liam and Sheila, have remained at Natasha's bedside since the attack and have been inundated with offers of accommodation from supporters in Chicago.