A London bar manager has spent 12 days in an intensive care unit after an unprovoked attack left him in a coma.
Dave Anand, 37, was leaving the premises of a future job prospect in Vauxhall when he and a friend were assaulted by two strangers, Francisco De Lima, a friend for 10 years who has set up a GoFundMe page, told the Standard.
Dave was punched in the right eye and he fell backwards, hitting his head on the pavement during the incident on Riverside Walk at roughly 9.30pm on March 1.
He was rushed to King’s College Hospital in a critical condition where he lay in a coma in ICU for two weeks, Mr De Lima said.
Scotland Yard says two men in their 40s also sustained facial injuries in the attack.
“When I saw [Dave] for the first time I thought to myself ‘he’s gone’ to be honest, but I had to change my mindset because you need to be positive for [him],” Mr De Lima told the Standard.
“The CT scan showed that he had blood in his brain and so they had to operate immediately to release the blood from his brain.
“He was operated on the Wednesday night that it happened, the 1st, and then he’s been in a coma since then until Saturday.”
As well as the brain bleed, Dave is suffering from a fractured neck.
He remains in the critical care unit in hospital and is waiting for an MRI scan, which has been delayed due to the junior doctors strike.
He may have to learn to talk and walk again in a recovery process that is expected to take between six and eight months, according to Mr De Lima.
He said Dave is currently being fed from a tube and is slipping in and out of consciousness. He hasn’t been able to talk yet but is being helped by a speech therapist.
Seeing his friend of a decade lying in the hospital bed was a shock, he said.
“To see somebody so happy and friendly, so outgoing, so busy, always working seven days a week, no days off....it’s not easy.
“I’m shocked and disappointed. If you just think about what hospitality has been through, and the world has been through, with Covid. Two years, you sat at home and...you just come out of that and just start rebuilding your career or your life and then something like this happens.
“One person’s actions can affect someone else’s life like this...itmakes you think how precious life is.”
Dave, originally from Malaysia, moved to London and has worked in a number of senior bar managerial roles including with the Darwin & Wallace group.
He is well known in the capital’s bar and hospitality sector, Mr De Lima said.
Mr De Lima said he has also received a number of concerned messages from Dave’s friends all over Europe, including Italy and France.
“I think it’s a big, big shock for all his friends.”
A GoFundMe page set up by Mr De Lima to help pay for Dave’s long recovery has raised more than £4,000 in two days, with some donations of £200.
“The outpouring of the friends and community, everybody has really been good,” Mr De Lima said.
“I think that’s what’s carrying everybody and carrying him.”
An 18-year-old has been charged with one count of grievous bodily harm with intent, and two counts of common assault following the attack.
A Scotland Yard spokesperson said police were called to St George Wharf in Vauxhall around 11pm on March 1, to reports of a fight.
Officers arrived at the scene to find Dave suffering a head injury, and two men in their 40s with facial injuries.
A spokesperson said Dave’s condition was “initially critical but was later assessed as not life-threatening or life-changing”.
Juan Antonio Toro Jaramillo, of no fixed address, was arrested at the scene, having been apprehended by one of the victims.
He was later charged by police and appeared at Croydon Magistrates’ Court on March 3. He was bailed to appear at Inner London Crown Court on a date yet to be confirmed.
