“IT HAS absolutely devastated our family, it took just 12 minutes and her life was changed.”

Those were the words of Pat Holmes, whose daughter Nichola Southey suffered a severe asthma attack five months ago and has never regained consciousness.

The 38-year-old, from Bicester, had battled asthma since she was a child, but the bad attack at a friend’s 18th birthday party last October has changed things for ever.

Partygoers called an ambulance and Nichola was given adrenaline, but suffered a heart attack before falling unconscious.

She has been in Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital ever since – and the family fear she will never wake up again.

Mrs Holmes, 58, who keeps a vigil at her daughter’s bedside every day, said Nichola had battled on despite doctors’ fears.

She said: “They don’t know if she will ever wake up.

“They gave her five days in October.

“Now, five months down the line, she’s still here. She’s a real fighter.

But she added: “She’s severely brain damaged, there’s no getting away from it. It has absolutely devastated our family, it took just 12 minutes and her life was changed.”

Nichola, who had worked for the Ministry of Defence in Bicester, as well as at a travel agency, was left brain-damaged after she was starved of oxygen for 12 minutes.

The mum-of-one is not in a coma or on a life-support machine, but has been left blind.

She can breathe by herself and her family believe she still feels emotions and pain, and can hear.

Her state is similar to Locked-In Syndrome, where a patient is aware and awake but cannot move or communicate verbally, although doctors are yet to diagnose her condition.

Mrs Holmes, of Lincoln Close, Bicester, has taken over caring for Nichola’s four-year-old daughter Madison.

She said: “Fortunately, or unfortunately, she hasn’t seen her mum in hospital.

“She’s starting now to realise mum isn’t there. She hasn’t asked to go and see her, but she knows mum is with the doctor.

“The days of me saying that the doctor will make mummy better are gone... they’re not going to make her better.”

The family know Nichola will need intensive care once she leaves hospital. Mrs Holmes is desperate to get her moved to the Agnes Court residential care centre, in Banbury, where she will get specialist help.

Mrs Holmes added: “Nichola will never be able to look after her child, she might be able to recognise her little one’s voice, but I do not know if she will ever see her baby again.

“On October 1 Madison lost her mum and Nichola lost her daughter.

“No matter how far she comes back, she will never hold her or do mum things again. Madison was a miracle baby because of Nichola’s asthma. Madison was her life.”

She described her daughter as a karaoke queen, a real character with an infectious laugh.

  • Miss Southey’s friend Julie Nicholls is organising a 1980s-themed party to raise money for physiotherapy and her future care at the Highfield Social Club, in George Street, Bicester, on Friday, April 15.

Tickets cost £10 and are available from George Smith, at G’s Wine Bar, in Sheep Street, Bicester, or by calling 01869 245970. Offers of prizes for a raffle at the event should also be made to this number.