Family of brain injury survivor Des Vallely still waiting to get him home

The family of brain injury survivor Des Vallely, whose story we featured last November, are still waiting to get him into their new, now suitable home in Glenageary, Co Dublin.

"We are all ready to take him," says his wife, Tara Dalton, who has various therapists lined up to help in his rehabilitation. But she and the children, Daniel (12) and Ella Rose (nine), are waiting for the HSE to finalise the plan for his discharge from the National Rehabilitation Hospital.

“He is making little bits of progress,” she reports of Des, who had a fall from his electric bike in Dublin city centre on January 8th last year. “He is up on his feet but still on his tippy toes.”

As she is being trained at the hospital for Des’s care on discharge, she has been able to see him but the children have not been with him since Christmas Day, when he was able to come home for a precious three-hour visit.

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The Walk Des Home appeal has reached €396,000, just short of the €400,000 target. "People have been amazing," says Tara. "That is what has kept us going."