THE MOTHER of diver-in-a-coma Shane Free is engaged in a tearful, lonely vigil at her son's bedside in a Phuket hospital.

Monica Vearer holds her son's hand, stroking it, hoping that he will hear her words of love and emerge from the coma he has endured for 15 days now.

Tears flowed again as she sat outside the intensive care unit at Vachira Hospital in Phuket City, showing Phuketwan on a laptop the film and music tributes being paid by her son's growing Facebook band of hundreds of friends.

Shane, aged 32, has his eyes open, staring into space, showing no signs of recognition. A life support system of tubes and wires is attached to his body.

Of the motorcycle crash that put her son in a coma, somewhere to the south of the island in the Kata-Karon area, Monica knows only a little.

''It could have been a car coming the other way, it could have been a dog running across the road . . . the police couldn't find any other vehicle involved.''

His mobile phone was missing. So were his house keys. So was his wallet. There was no sign of a motorcycle helmet. His mother thinks he was returning to his Chalong home from Patong, Phuket's nightclub beach.

''All we know is that he had an accident on his moped, somewhere there,'' she said. ''Somebody found him at 3am in the morning and he was brought to Patong Hospital and then to Vachira.''

All the nursing staff at Vachira knew was that they had a very sick, unidentified man in their care. Turning detectives, they managed to trace the registration of the motorcycle, which eventually led to the sick young man being identified.

''We did not know until December 15 because he had no papers on him. Then Martin [Carpenter] the honorary consul came and one of his friends came and identified him.

''We want to take him back to Britian when he's well enough. At the moment he is not well enough to be moved. He's still poorly, very very poorly.

''His temperature has come down a bit, he has a bad chest infection and he has bad trauma to the head, so he is in a coma.''

There is no indication what the future holds.

''We have to wait,'' she said. ''When he comes out of his coma . . . don't know.''

Shane's father came with his mother, although they are no longer married.

''It will cost 30,000 pounds to take him back, when he is well enough to travel. No insurance,'' she said. ''He was working as a dive instructor here for three years.

''I came to visit him in January. I'm a divemaster. My son and I dive together.''

Ms Vearer works with autistic children at home in Britain. She says the response from her son's friends has been amazing, with hundreds signing on to his Facebook page.

She also thinks that the Thai nurses at the hospital have been a wonderful help.

But she thinks there are problems in Thailand with the motorcycle culture, and that it has to change.

''Motorbikes are bad here, with no helmets,'' she said. ''I see five people on one bike, the driver has a helmet, little babies, no helmet, mother no helmet, children no helmet. There must be a law for people to wear helmets, all day and all night.

''Two nights ago, a young lad died. Too many people are dying without helmets. There has to be a law for helmets, and only two on a bike, not five.''

We left her, continuing her hospital vigil.