It had been eight months since Luca de Nigris had shown any signs of consciousness. Eight months since the teenage son of Fulvio and Maria de Nigris, who they had always described as their "cheerful and courageous child", had stirred from the coma he had slipped into in February of that year.

So when Maria received the news on October 6 1997 that 16-year-old Luca had woken from the sleep that her own country's doctors said he was never likely to recover from, the emotions came flooding. "I am overwhelmed by happiness," Maria wrote to her son upon hearing of his recovery, "and think of all those little signs of response that we received from you in these last weeks and I realise now that they really signified a great change that was occurring in your state of consciousness. Bravo Luca!"

Luca de Nigris fell into a coma in February 1997 after a fairly routine operation on his spinal column. Though his constant, beaming smile had given little clue, he had lived for years with scoliosis, or curvature of the spine. The condition had forced him to wear medical corsets and plaster casts for support. Since birth he had also suffered from hydrocephalus, or water on the brain, a fact which was perhaps underestimated by the team that operated on him. As it was, the operation caused Luca to suffer a massive brain haemorrhage. He immediately slipped into a life-threatening coma.

Although Luca was born and raised in Bologna, Fulvio and Maria found little hope for their unconscious son from Italian doctors. No medical institution in the country was prepared to take him in; there were no centres specialising in coma cases. "The cerebral cortex is fucked. You should divorce yourselves entirely from your son," one consultant told them.

But they were not prepared to give up, and were convinced that their son would not want them to. And so the family travelled to the Anna Dengel Haus, a clinic perched on a hill near the town of Hochzirl in the middle of an Austrian pine forest. It is one of the few places in the world that offers both pharmacological and "multisensorial" therapy. Uniquely, relatives are trained up in the therapeutic process so that they can continue the treatment even in the absence of professional carers. The De Nigris family were asked to use music, light and art in an attempt to trigger their son's latent memories. "Luca was very fond of puppet shows," says his father, "so we arranged for a show in the clinic which seemed to have some effect." The family also played Luca's favourite pieces of music, from classical works of Mozart to pop songs by Enya and Italian singer Lucio Dalla to stimulate their son into consciousness. In the seventh month of the coma, Maria wrote in the book the family co-authored and dedicated to Luca's experience: "The soundtrack continues to be fundamental for the quality of life that I have decided to offer you . . . I don't ask that it be therapeutic, but I want us to relive the emotions that made us happy in a life which had always been difficult for you."

But the process does seem to have been therapeutic. Against the odds - at least against the odds offered by the Italian doctors - Luca came round. What began as the odd physical movement, turned gradually into verbal communication - though it was a painfully slow process. First, he learned to say yes or no by blinking, then by moving his head and finally by pointing with his right index finger to the words "yes" and "no" written on pieces of cardboard. His first full phrase came later, when he spelled out the letters of the words: "Luca is stupid." Maria de Nigris was reassured when doctors told her the perplexing message actually indicated a surprisingly high level of self-awareness in her brain-damaged child.

Eventually, on December 10 1997, Luca was allowed to return home. Still suffering from his numerous illnesses, however, he died suddenly in his sleep on January 7 1998.

Since their son's death, and those extra few months of life with him, Fulvio and Maria have dedicated themselves to improving facilities for people in comas. After intensive campaigning and fundraising, the Luca de Nigris "House of Awakenings" is due to be built near Bologna next year. It will pioneer innovative techniques for the treatment of comatose patients. As in Austria, a variety of therapies will be used to call brain-damaged patients back to consciousness. Researchers for the project now believe that lights developed by an Italian company, iGuzzini illuminazione, which are meant to mimic the sun's cycle from dawn to dusk, could help to restore natural sleep patterns for long-term coma patients. (The company has publicised its involvement with the hospital through a curious series of adverts in the British press; they feature a picture of a boy apparently in a coma.) "These lights were developed for locations cut off from natural sunlight and it was found that their use helped workers to stay alert," says Fulvio. "We had an intuitive sense that they could also help coma patients."

Based on the Austrian model, relatives will also be encouraged to live with the patient in small apartments so that they remain in a familiar family and social environment.

It is an unusual approach, according to Dr Wendy Magee, head of music therapy at the Royal Hospital for Neurodisability in London, who has advised on the project. "The House of Awakenings is looking to using a lot of alternative ways of working, as well as creative therapies," she says. "Music and art therapy are recognised disciplines, but looking at puppetry, the use of light, and having family able to stay over is quite unique."

Magee concedes that there isn't anywhere in Britain that offers such a diverse range of treatments, though she says that the Royal Hospital for Neurodisability offers many treatments in addition to rehab fundamentals - including speech language therapy and more unusual techniques such as music therapy. "The hospital is also looking at piloting some research work looking at the use of sensory stimulation environments like light," she says. "And we've also got a lot of volunteer concerts and other activities going on that people emerging from a coma are able to access."

For Luca's parents, the House of Awakenings is a dream come true. But they are still very angry, and still a long way from accepting their son's death. At the moment they are waiting for the results of a criminal investigation into the cause of his coma. They believe the report will conclude that the doctors who operated on him were at fault - though those who dismissed Luca's chances of recovery out of hand are unlikely to be reprimanded. "This has been a great defeat for medicine," says Fulvio. "But if we manage to understand them, these medical errors may at least be of some help to people in the future."