THE fighting spirit that allows ordinary people to defy the odds can astonish even the most experienced experts.

For all the advances in medicine, there are some things that doctors cannot account for why it is, for example, that some people can claw their way back from almost certain death to make a full recovery.

When former Wiltshire police officer Graham Chivers suffered a brain haemorrhage while watching his 12-year-old son play rugby, the outlook looked bleak.

A blood vessel in his brain had ruptured and a blood-thinning drug he was taking to combat deep vein thrombosis in his leg made the situation more serious because the bleed was less likely to clot.

Police press officer Mr Chivers, 50, was rushed to the Royal United Hospital in Bath where his wife Jan was told that her husband had only a five per cent chance of survival.

She said: "At that point I started to resign myself to Graham's death. I asked if I should fetch our daughter, Kirsten, and they said 'yes'."

Following tests, Mr Chivers, who still had not regained consciousness, was transferred to the specialist brain injury unit at Frenchay Hospital in Bristol.

Mr Chivers remained in a coma for five weeks as surgeons fought to save his life using the latest procedures.

In a highly complex operation, surgeons inserted a tiny coil into the vein at the site of the aneurism.

Later a 'shunt' was placed in his brain to drain blood and excess brain fluid away.

And after weeks of hell, Mrs Chivers, and her two children Kirsten, 11 and Jonathan,12, got the first spark of hope they had been holding out for.

On Christmas Day Mr Chivers opened his eyes for the first time since his collapse.

And he was finally allowed home almost 10 weeks after his attack.

Mr Chivers said: "The messages we have had from everyone gave Jan and the kids so much support when things were really bad.

"I'm lucky to be alive, but I'm even luckier to have such a wonderful family and great mates."