misstonya, I have some photos of my partner very much like the photo of your son. wish I could upload them but have had disputes with other family members who dont agree with me taking photos of him being the way he is, they feel that the 4 men who done this to him would see them and laugh at them, so have to try and keep the peace at the moment .
My partner isnt ever consistant with anything and can still go days, week n months without responding to anything. Its a big problem with rehab because when he doesnt respond the doctors cant work with him and threatinening to give up on the rehab, when they think maybe he's not ready Then the next day he'll shock everyone, like he had me in tears when he asked the nurse to call me on my birthday, we spoke on the phone he said he loved me and told our daughter he was proud of her.
He gets very frustrated to when people dont tell him wats going on so I think its important to remeber that because he doesnt repond doesnt mean he dont hear you and understand whats happening. He is trying so hard to communicate anyway he can and still has his pesonality despite what the experts say, and will have good and bad days the same as we all do. but in the past his attemps to squeeze my hand or smile when I asked him have been dismissed as muscle spasm or when he tryed to make a sound they said it was the infection in his chest and that due to the damage of tracheosomy he may never speak . I always tryed to stay positive when speaking to him but got so frustrated one day that I burst into tears, then our daughter started crying n when I looked up he was crying also. was so good to know that he could feel emotion as we never knew for sure before then, and was even better when he first laughted, when we took the dog to see him and the dog broke wind lol but thats just his sense of humour and he still laughs every time we mention it.
There is some great video's on youtube that have given me hope, will try and post link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOopfBEwrM4&feature=fvsr