He may talk to me again

Dozens of toys hang from the ceiling. The TV broadcasts a fairy tale. A skinny unreceptive boy with a fixed look is watching from his bed. Nearby, a specially trained dog is looking at his friend. A rehabilitation table and a special bike stand by the window. We are in Cizkrajov, a village in southern Bohemia, the scene of a drama lasting several years, the drama of 13-year-old Filip Němec, the boy who within a few minutes lost more than any of us can imagine. Although Filip and his family have a long way to go, the public part of the story is drawing towards a close. And, if we may say so given the situation, the public participation in this case did not end badly.

As some may remember, Filip Němec ended up unconscious under water in a swimming pool for several minutes during a school trip in 2003. The reason is still unknown. The boy was pulled out of the pool before drowning, but when taken home from hospital by his parents, Filip was completely paralysed, brain-dead and without a hope of a significant recovery. „He could only breathe, that was it,“ says Filip's mother, 35-year-old Martina Němcová, when recalling the first moments of a family tragedy that soon changed into a public drama.

The Němec family decided to sue first the teacher for malpractice and later also the local school, asking for compensation. But the authority responsible…