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Mum Alanna, Ronni, brother Jake and dad John Norman. The family are overjoyed to have Ronni back after her three weeks in hospital

AFTER ten days in a coma, schoolgirl Ronni Norman's first words to doctors were "I want to go home".

And this week her wish came true when she was allowed to return to her family in Loughton after a terrifying brush with death.

Doctors had feared Ronni, ten, might not survive after being knocked down three weeks ago by a double decker bus just yards from her home in Chester Road.

Local families claim the street is an accident blackspot and have started a petition demanding traffic calming measures be installed.

Ronni spent ten days on a life support machine and her devoted parents refused to move from her bedside, hoping and praying the youngster would pull through.

She was eventually woken from her coma and, amazingly, is now on the road to recovery.

Dad John, 45, said: "She's making small steps of progress. She's a bit introverted and doesn't want go out and her schoolwork's gone back a bit, but they say over the months it might come back.

"She seems cheery enough, but generally someone's got to be with her every minute of the day.

"It's nice to have her back. She had about three walls filled with cards. We had other parents and teachers coming in from the whole school which really helped."

After the accident, Ronni was transferred to Great Ormond Street Hospital and spent nearly two weeks in intensive care before being woken by doctors.

Mr Norman said: "The first thing she said was I want to go home. Her throat was in a terrible state. I think she was disturbed by all the tubes going in. One moment she was crossing the road, and the next she wakes up in hospital Her mother Alanna, 42, said: ""When she woke up she was in a terrible state. She had everyone in there in tears one time when we were going to leave and she whispered: Don't leave me'.

"It's just a total relief to have her home. I've gone back to work to get some normality. For three weeks I didn't move out of the hospital. It was awful."

Although well enough to go home, Ronni is still in some pain and it will be another three weeks before she returns to Hereward School for a half-day trial.

Mrs Norman told the Guardian: "She's got a funny sense of humour anyway, and when she says things now we don't know if she's being funny or not. We can see that things have happened . We used to be able to ask her maths questions and she'd answer in a moment. and she'll now um and ah' over it.

"I work with taking disabled kids to school so I've seen it before. We knew what to expect in the worst case scenario. Thank God that didn't happen."

Mr Norman said: "There's nothing to say she won't make a full recovery, but I don't know what to expect. They said it could be anything up to two to three years. I don't know."

He said he was still campaigning for better safety measures on Chester Road adding: "If we just had a few traffic islands it would make such a difference."

8:00am Thursday 3rd April 2008

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