Was he attacked? Did he fall? What left Modesto man in a coma?

Emma Uili said she knows next to nothing about what happened to her husband the night of Dec. 15.

Answers will come, the Modesto resident hopes. But her biggest concern right now is that 36-year-old Melea Uili safely is brought out of the coma doctors have kept him in since he suffered head trauma that night outside Yosemite Lanes.

The couple were bowling with their five children — ages 15, 13, 11, 10 and 9 — and other family. About midnight, Emma went home with the kids, she said, while Melea remained with her brother because the bar still was open.

Emma's brother came home later in the night and told her Melea was taken to the emergency room at Memorial Medical Center. Apparently, he had walked outside the bowling alley to have a cigarette, and what happened next is unknown. "I am left in the dark — I don't know nothing," Emma said.

Police are in much the same situation. "There aren't any witnesses, there are no (surveillance) cameras in the area," said Modesto Police Department spokeswoman Heather Graves. It's not known whether Melea Uili, who according to a family member was intoxicated, was attacked or fell, striking his head, she said. The incident report lists it as a case of battery, Graves said, but there's no evidence either way.

"From the way the doctors explained to me," Emma Uili said, "the impact on his head was on the back on the right side, and he has little fractures on the right side of his face. They said they don't think he fell."

If Melea was attacked, the motive apparently wasn't robbery. Nothing was taken from him, his wife said, adding, "I want somebody to take responsibility for what they did."

Melea remains in the intensive care unit at Memorial. Because he suffered skull fractures, internal bleeding and brain swelling, doctors have kept him highly sedated to keep his blood pressure low, Emma said. Friday, he was to have an endotracheal tube put in, she said.

"As of right now, doctors said they don't know how he would be (if they brought him out of the coma), if he would be normal," Emma said. "They did warn me that when does come to, he could be very aggressive because his brain might go back to that night and whatever happened to him. They don't really know how he’s gonna be."

In the meantime, Emma said she's looking for work because Melea, an employee of Plastipak, was the family's sole provider. She's also working on getting his disability paperwork done, and his co-workers helped get a gofundme.com page set up.

The couple's children? They got some counseling at their schools, Emma said. "They're good, but they're just waiting for their dad to come back."

She said doctors told her Melea faces a long journey to recovery, perhaps six months to a year. "I try my hardest not to be vulnerable in front of (the children) because it will set them up to be sad."

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This story was originally published December 29, 2017 at 2:03 PM with the headline "Was he attacked? Did he fall? What left Modesto man in a coma?."