My brother Ben is fighting for his life in Cambodia

My big brother Ben is currently fighting for his life in Cambodia.

 

After being found by his wonderful friends, unconscious in his hostel room on Monday, just half way through his holiday. We do not know how long Ben had been unconscious in his room on his own.

I got the call at 8:50am, starting the worst week of our lives.

He has had multiple tests done; it’s been found he has acute kidney failure, severe pneumonia, he’s in a coma and has to be ventilated to breathe. Ben is only 32 years old.

Ben has not regained consciousness in over 5 days, he has made two ambulances journeys to transfer to a hospital equipped to treat his conditions. The first Hospital ride was a necessity for Ben’s survival, as he wasn’t being given oxygen at that point, even though his blood oxygen levels were at 60%. The next ambulance ride which took five and a half hours from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh was to enable him to receive dialysis as he would have died without this, most of the country does not have treatments available such as dialysis.

Ben has no medical/holiday insurance, when you’re young you think you’re invincible, so all of this is not just a heart-breaking strain on us all, but is coming at a huge financial cost to our family. It’s £8000 a day to be kept in ICU, let alone costs of ambulances, medication/ procedures, dialysis and tests being done. We have spent upwards of £60,000 since Monday, with every day the amount grows massively. My Mum, Dad and Step-Dad have gone to Cambodia to be by his side, making the 20 hour trip from the UK, they are living a nightmare right now. As I am back in the UK with my soon to be 2 year old, trying to do what I can to help.

We have been told that an air ambulance home would cost between £125,000 - £200,000. If this would even be an option.

Please help us save Ben, anything you can spare to help towards the cost of the medical bills to try and save his life and bring him back home would be greatly appreciated.

I need my brother and my parents need their son home.

He is half-way around the world and he needs to be back home.

Thank you so much.

Imogen x

Update: Such a massive thank you to everyone who has donated. We are so overwhelmed by the response and kindness shown. Ben is definitely starting to respond to his treatments in the last 24 hours, which is great news. He’s still on a ventilator and receiving dialysis for his kidney failure and his pneumonia is still severe. But there is positive news and he is responding to the treatments. He has still got a long, long way to go but he is getting amazing care.

Ben is making good progress and remains in intensive care but in an improving condition and has excellent care. Thank you very much for the all the donations and kind messages.

We are now closing the GoFundMe account to new donations as we have achieved our goal. Thank you for your generosity. Every penny will go to supporting Ben’s recovery and return.