AFTER weeks of frustration the parents of a teenager who suffered a coma are seeing the first signs of her recovery.

Kirsty Ball, 18, from Chepstow, came out of a coma 12 weeks ago, and on December 28 was moved to a specialist unit at Rookwood Hospital, Cardiff.

Now, after just four days at the specialist centre, she is making sounds and has movement in her head and neck.

The teenager suffered from eating disorders since the age of 11 and fell into a coma on July 14 after she took an overdose.

When she came out of the full coma she could open her eyes but had no controlled movements.

Doctors told her parents, Martin, 48, and Joanne, 44, of Sycamore Avenue, Chepstow, that for the best recovery she needed to move to a hospital with specialist neuro-rehabilitation facilities.

But Health Commission Wales, the body that commissions specialist healthcare services, told Mr and Mrs Ball that Kirsty had to wait for a place at the Rookwood Hospital, Cardiff, which was full, despite there being a bed free in a Bristol hospital.

On December 28, after the Argus revealed their plight, a place was found for Kirsty at Rookwood.

Her father told the Argus: "I am convinced she is going to manage a good degree of recovery - even if she will never be completely as she was before.

"She's going out in the wheelchair every day and getting the stimulation she needs."

Other improvements include Kirsty's toes - previously clawed up from cramp, but now relaxing thanks to regular physiotherapy.

But Mr Ball said the distance to the Cardiff hospital is still a barrier to her recovery as it would have been easier for the family to visit Bristol.

He said: "It's frustrating because the stimulation of family visits are an important part of her therapy. It makes us feel helpless."

Mr Ball is planning to take his complaint about Health Commission Wales' handling of the situation to the Ombudsman.

He said: "We will pursue this right through. It's been so cruel and inhuman, I feel like they were literally gambling with her life."