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Tuesday, 22 November 2005The doctor treating George Best is looking for him to regain consciousness within the next few hours.
The former footballer has been taken off sedation for the first time since Friday, when he was put on a ventilator at the Cromwell Hospital, west London.
Professor Roger Williams said Best was a fighter who had been keeping himself alive with his own strength.
But he is now looking for Best, 59 - who has a lung infection - to start to show signs of an improvement.
Professor Williams, who oversaw the Manchester United and Northern Ireland star's liver transplant three years ago, said: "He cannot survive day after day without some improvement occurring."
His brain and pupils were reacting and there was no question of him being "kept alive", he added.
Battled alcoholism
Best's father, sisters and brother are expected to return to his bedside on Tuesday morning.
His son, Calum, thanked well-wishers for their support as he left the hospital on Monday evening.
Best, who has battled alcoholism for years, has been receiving various hospital treatments, including antibiotics, clotting factors and replacement fluids.
He was admitted to hospital on 1 October suffering from flu-like symptoms and his health deteriorated rapidly at the beginning of November when he developed a kidney infection.
Best was re-admitted to the intensive care unit on Friday.
Public support
Phil Hughes, Best's agent, said the family were taking strength from the support offered by the public.
"They are bearing up," he said. "They would like to say thank you to all the well-wishers. It's a very hard time for all of us."
At the weekend Best allowed the News of the World to print a photograph taken of him in hospital, as a warning about the dangers of alcohol.
He had asked for the picture to be taken before being transferred into intensive care, the paper said.
In it, Best looks gaunt with a yellow pallor due to his malfunctioning liver, with tubes attached to his bruised body.
BBC News
Novemvber 22, 2005
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Tuesday, 22 November 2005
BBC News
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