A beloved mum is stranded abroad with a brain aneurysm after she suffered a horror fall in the shower the day after she arrived in Spain.
Tina Bond, 57, from Harleston, Norfolk, is fighting to get better in hospital after she collapsed in the bathroom on holiday. She jetted off to Mallorca to visit her sister-in-law Michelle Pinnegar, 61, who lives in , on September 21. But one day later she collapsed.
"When she collapsed she was making this awful gurgling noise," said her daughter Zoe Reeve. Michelle frantically alerted an ambulance and within 30 minutes she was raced to Manacor Hospital in . Medics delivered the worrying news that she had suffered a brain aneurysm, a subarachnoid haemorrhage and that she also had pneumonia caused by the aneurysm.
Tina underwent emergency surgery where doctors drained the on her brain and fitted cannulas. The following day, Tina was transferred to Son Espases hospital in Palma where she remained on life support for three weeks. Doctors woke her up from the sedation slowly and she's now been in hospital for seven weeks.
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Tina's Global Health Insurance Card (GHIC) covered her emergency stay but, as she didn't take out travel insurance, she needs to cover the cost of an air ambulance home. Zoe was unable to get out to her mum's bedside straight away as her passport had expired, so had an agonising four-day wait for her fast-track passport.
The 28-year-old care assistant has now set up a GoFundMe page to help raise money to foot the estimated £23,000 bill to bring Tina . Zoe said: "Words can't describe when it first happened, my heart felt like it stopped beating. Just feeling so helpless being all the way back home and not being able to come and see Mum straight away was heartbreaking. Apparently it can happen to anyone. It's just something that can explode at any time, it's really scary.
"My aunty called me and I flew out on the 26th. That was the closest I could come out because unfortunately, my passport had expired. She had cannulas and everything, drainage things put in her head to relieve all the pressure and she had a cannula to stop the bleeding. She also had pneumonia when she came in because when she she was making this awful gurgling noise and that fluid went onto her lungs. The life support was doing everything for her for the three weeks she was in the coma. After three weeks they started to take off the sedation very slowly.
"We weren't even one hundred percent sure if she would pull through from all of this. Luckily she fought all the hurdles that were thrown her way. She wasn't really aware of what was going on, she could ever-so-slightly move her fingertips and every day since then it's just been moving a bit more and a bit more. Just over a week ago, she got moved to the rehabilitation ward and now she's not on any .
"She's just got a tracheotomy fitted and she's being fed through a tube still. She's regained strength in her arms and a little bit in her legs again. She's able to hold her head again but she's still very very weak at the moment." Although Zoe said doctors are hopeful Tina can make strides in her recovery, they warned she has a 'very long road ahead'. Now Zoe is urging anyone abroad to take out travel insurance. Zoe said: "With the language barriers over here I would like to get Mum back home to England to go to a hospital closer to home where she can finish off her rehabilitation.
"She's very loved at home, the whole town is really looking forward to when Mum comes home. They have been so supportive throughout this time and it really has gone to show how much Mum is loved. She brings the light to the room, she's very happy, bubbly, kind, caring and she's a very strong woman and I think she's definitely proved that throughout this whole . I'm the only child as well so things have been quite difficult. At the moment my family are able to cover the cost but that's a lot of money to put on them. I thought anything that we can raise [from the fundraiser] would take the pressure off what my family are able to donate and any extra can go to charity."
Zoe said what's happened to Tina should be a warning to other about the importance of taking out insurance, even when you haven't needed it before. Zoe said: "Unfortunately this time she didn't get travel insurance to come over but I know that a lot of travel insurance doesn't actually cover the repatriation travel. I think because she's been coming over to see my aunty once a year for 28 years, you don't think of anything like this happening."
The family hope to have Tina home soon so she can continue her and physiotherapy in England. Zoe said: "My aunty has been an absolute hero through this, driving from Cala d'Or to Palma every single day to bring us to see Mum and sit by her bedside. Just hearing her speak for the first time was just so emotional. Every little thing, positive steps that she can do now, is amazing."
To donate to the fundraiser visit .
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