Singleton's Kylee Enwright faces a long road ahead, but her husband is hopeful she will recover from her devastating accident in Thailand.
Mrs Enwright is in intensive care at John Hunter Hospital, having returned home on a Thai Airways flight at the weekend.
"The biggest improvement she's had is her breathing tube has been taken out," husband Paul Enwright said.
And an MRI scan at John Hunter showed "she doesn't have a deep brain injury".
"It's all around the outer edge. We took that as a good sign, but I'm no doctor."
He said medical staff at John Hunter were "pretty happy" with her condition "in the short time they've had her", given it's only been three weeks since the accident.
"The doctors saw quite a few good things from what I could tell," he said.
When she arrived at John Hunter, her feet and arms were put in restraints so she didn't hurt herself.
"She would try and undo the foot restraints with her toes, so that showed them there was some problem-solving skills going on there," he said.
"That was an encouraging sign. She's quite alert and awake, she just can't communicate."
The doctors have told him "it's a long road to recovery".
"If she keeps doing what she's doing in the ICU and the scans come back OK, I think the plan is she won't be in the ICU very long, she'll be in the neuro ward and start doing rehab."
Doctors told him that the most improvement with brain injuries happens in the period from three to 12 months after the accident.
"Three to six months is a bit of improvement, six to 12 months is the most improvement and after 12 months there's only minute improvement up to two years.
"What we get in 12 months will be Kylee, with maybe some slight improvement here and there."
He said it was uncertain where his wife will be on the scale of recovery in a year, "whether that's 100, 95 or 90 per cent".
"We're keeping our fingers crossed it's 100 per cent, but realistically we're not sure," he said.
The Enwrights, who have three children, flew to Thailand on May 27 for a two-week holiday near Phuket.
Mrs Enwright fell off a half-metre high balcony and hit her head on the ground after a few drinks on the first day of their holiday.
Their travel insurance company refused to cover her medical bills due to an alcohol clause in the policy.
A GoFundMe campaign that raised more than $200,000 helped bring Mrs Enwright home, with several seats removed from the plane to make space for her stretcher bed.
Mrs Enwright underwent surgery in Thailand, with part of her skull removed due to swelling.
"She will need more surgery in three to four months," her husband said.
This will involve replacing the removed skull with a 3D printed titanium implant.
"At the moment she's missing half her skull on one side. As the brain shrinks back to its normal size, she'll end up having a divot in the side of her head," he said.
"They will do 3D mapping of her brain and create a titanium piece, which they fuse to the bone."
He said the equipment at John Hunter was "state of the art".
"It's a lot better than what we were faced with in Thailand," he said.
"There's a whole different level of care. The biggest change is no one in front of me with an EFTPOS machine."
