British gran in Spanish holiday coma trauma faces £28,000 bill to get home

British gran in Spanish holiday coma trauma faces £28,000 bill to get home

Jennifer Wardle, a 70-year-old British grandmother from Middlesbrough, is stranded on the holiday island of Gran Canaria after falling sick whilst on holiday. She ended up in the intensive care unit of a hospital, in a coma, fighting for her life, after suffering severe food poisoning just days after arriving on the Canary island.

Jennifer’s daughter, Mandy, aged 40, explained to TeessideLive the desperate situation that her family have now found themselves in. “She’s now off life support but they won’t let us take her home without a mediplane (air ambulance plane)”.

Mandy continued, “When we took the insurance out for my mam, we declared that she had COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), which she does, and we declared that she had a chest infection which she had before we came away, and was treated with antibiotics”.

“We declared that she had a previous hospital stay for an infection, but because she went to the doctors on November 1, and got steroids for her COPD, they are saying she had a chest infection, and therefore it was a false declaration”, she added.

Although her mother is now out of the ICU, Jennifer still needs to receive oxygen, but can only get back to Britain in a special mediplane. The cheapest estimated cost of which, says Mandy, is a whopping £28,000, which the family can not afford. With her mother in the hospital, in order to stay near, Mandy is having to fork out around £250 each week to rent an apartment on the island.

The family has now set up a crowdfunding page in a desperate bid to raise the cash themselves to get Jennifer home to Middlesbrough.

Explaining further about what happened, Mandy said, “We arrived on holiday on November 8. On the 10th she was in the hospital, on the 11th she was on life support. At first, they were saying it was pneumonia and an infection. Then there was talk of a blood clot. Now they are saying it was the food she was eating on holiday”.

“We were out on the first night, and she was smashing. We were having drinks. On the Tuesday she was a bit off-ish but she went out and she had a meal, but on the Wednesday, she was in the hospital”, revealed Mandy.

“Without a mediplane, I don’t think we will get her back for Christmas. She has grandchildren and great granchildren. All they want is to get her home”, she added,  as reported by mirror.co.uk.

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