THE health of artist Bill Leak continues to improve, with doctors hopeful he will be out of intensive care by Sunday.

Leak, the award-winning cartoonist for The Australian, was in an induced coma for three days in Sydney’s Royal North Shore Hospital after falling from a balcony while feeding cockatoos and parrots at the NSW central coast property of adman John Singleton on Saturday.

Last night, neurosurgeon Nazih Assaad said Leak was continuing to progress well.

“He is remaining talkative, but is a bit tired,” Dr Assaad said. “You don’t get much sleep in intensive care.

“Hopefully he will be out of intensive care within 48 hours.

“He continues to be lucid and doing all the right things. He is medically very stable.”

Dr Assaad said Leak did not appear to have suffered any memory loss despite the fall and having endured two brain operations to remove a blood clot on the surface of his brain.

“Bill is recovering marvellously well,” he said.

“So far, there have been nocomplications and we don’t expect any further surgery to berequired.

“We are very pleased with how he is progressing so early after his accident; and his family are also, naturally, pleased with his recovery, as is he.

“It is all good.”

Leak’s son Johannes told The Australian yesterday that “considering what he’s been through”, his father was doing well. “We’re all pretty relieved. His limbs are in working order, and he is chatting away.

“He hates hospitals, though, so he can’t wait to get out ofthere.”

Johannes said that while his 52-year-old father was in good spirits and responding well to treatment, his rehabilitation was likely to be a “long process”.

“But he’s heading in the right direction,” Johannes, 27, said.

Leak’s partner, Lo, his mother, Doreen, sister Lynne and Johannes were by his side when he regained consciousness on Wednesday and immediately began to crack jokes.

He is expected to remain in hospital for at least a month.

Leak is the winner of eight Walkley Awards, 19 Stanley Awards from the Australian Cartoonists Association, including eight as Artist of the Year, and has been a finalist in the Archibald Prize 12 times. He has won the Archibald’s Packing Room Prize twice as well asthe People’s Choice award for a portrait of federal Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull.

Credit: John Stapleton, James Madden