SAS recruit in good humour for recovery | Hawkes Bay News | Local News in Hawkes Bay

An SAS recruit who woke from an induced coma at the weekend is strong enough to tease his two younger nephews, says a relative.

Lieutenant Alexander Teira Cowan was in an induced coma after collapsing while running during a bi-annual Special Air Service recruitment process on January 25.

The 25-year-old opened his eyes on Saturday.

Among his first words were the names of two nephews waiting in Middlemore Hospital's Intensive Care Unit room with him, said brother-in-law Parris Greening.

Dempsey Greening 16, and Lexus Greening, 15, smiled as their uncle recognised and called out to them, and returned the next day for a right "ribbing" from the patient, Mr Greening said.

"He was just being cheeky to them, saying things like 'oh, so is your big brother doing better than you?', and 'are you carving up, or is your little brother carving you up?'," he said.

Mr Cowan had returned home to Hastings over the summer where he trained the pair for the upcoming rugby season, and was eager to find out how their training had progressed, Mr Greening said.

Mr Cowan gained strength over the weekend, and enjoyed watching the New Zealand Sevens team's winning haka on Saturday. He had now reached the point where he was talking "a lot" when his whanau visited him.

"He was alert, he was aware of what was around him. So we're just stoked, he's alert, attentive and responsive," Mr Greening said, adding that Mr Cowan spoke in a slightly Nasal voice because of medical tubes in his nose.

"Right now, he is awake and alert when he talks to us but he still needs to rest at the same time, he's come off some pretty heavy drugs that induced the coma."

Mr Cowan is now listed in a serious but stable condition. . Doctors have not discussed any time frames for how long Mr Cowan was expected to remain in hospital, and were still trying to figure out what led the soldier to fall unconscious following a gruelling SAS try-out exercise.

"They're still looking to figure out what happened, why. We don't know answers yet. All they know is he's getting stronger, and whatever they're doing, it's helping him."

Mr Greening said his brother-in-law was a "fine specimen" of a man, and said his strength and fitness were likely to be behind his recovery.

A contingent of immediate and extended family members, sometimes up to 40-strong, have packed out the intensive care unit since he became ill, Mr Greening said.

Mr Cowan fell unconscious during an exercise in the Hunua Ranges near the SAS base in South Auckland, where recruits had to run an 8km course in uniform while carrying equipment in a load-carrying vest weighing about 10kg.

He had completed the exercise when he blacked out.

The soldier received immediate first aid assistance before he was taken to hospital, where he remained in an induced coma until Saturday. APNZ