Telfer wakes from coma after positive test results

Sports broadcaster Brendan Telfer has woken from a coma but faces two weeks of recovery in Wellington Hospital.

The 58-year-old was yesterday breathing on his own, but lapsing in and out of sleep after collapsing at Wellington Airport on Sunday afternoon.

Telfer - a Radiosport presenter and three-decade broadcasting veteran - had been flying home to Auckland from the New Zealand Open golf tournament in Queenstown when he suffered what is believed to have been a stroke.

He was able to phone his wife for help, but was incoherent by the time an ambulance got him to hospital.

Tests were done after he was put in a coma.

Fellow broadcaster Keith Quinn told the Herald on Monday night that Telfer's test results were good and it had been decided to bring him out of the coma.

But yesterday afternoon Quinn said it would be a number of hours before Telfer was fully conscious.

"If that was going through to its conclusion, that would happen at some time today."

Telfer's Radiosport boss, Bill Francis, was awaiting updates from family members.

He said Telfer was making some progress and was still in intensive care, where he was being monitored closely.

The Neurological Foundation's medical adviser, Dr Jon Simcock, told the Herald that bleeding into the brain accounted for 10 to 15 per cent of strokes and was commonly linked to high blood pressure.

The remainder arose from an artery serving the brain becoming blocked, usually by a blood clot.

Arteries could bleed into the brain for a number of reasons, the commonest being a small artery rupture.

Telfer - who has covered several Olympic Games and international netball tests for Television New Zealand - has just released a book, A Life in Sport. Publisher Trio Books has postponed the launch.

- NZPA