Doctors treating Mike Harcourt said Tuesday the former B.C. premier is making a "dramatic" recovery from a spinal cord injury and may eventually be able to walk again.

Harcourt, 59, fell six metres off the deck of his Pender Island cottage a week ago Saturday. He landed face-down in the ocean. His wife, Beckie, saved his life when she turned him over and got him breathing again. He was flown by air ambulance to Vancouver General Hospital.

"He's gotten to the point now where he can move everything -- although the movement may not be very fine or involve fine motor skills -- but to the point where he has movement," said Harcourt's son Justen, 22.

Harcourt underwent a seven-hour operation to stabilize his spine and relieve pressure on the spinal cord.

"It's very positive at this early stage, within one week from the injury, that we're seeing an early recovery from muscles that weren't initially working, said Dr. Marcel Dvorak. "It's a very good sign.''

Before he landed in the water, Harcourt tumbled down a rocky cliff.

"There's a cedar tree and we think he must have hit some of the boughs of the cedar tree on his way down which is likely to have saved his life because it slowed his descent," Justen Harcourt said.

"I'm just happy he's alive and everything else is just a bonus."

Harcourt is expected to spend another month at Vancouver General Hospital before being transferred to a rehabilitation facility.

Harcourt was premier of B.C. from 1991 to 1995, after serving two terms as Vancouver's mayor.