It’s time to admit that I (really) need your help

Dear friends,

I am humbly asking for your help to raise money for cost of my medical bills after being involved in a hit-and-run road accident on my bicycle in Puebla, Mexico.

 

On Sunday the 7th of November at 6.30am I left a small rural hotel by bicycle in a small village in the state of Puebla, Mexico.

 

At 7am the local police received an anonymous phone call to say there was an unconscious cyclist lying in the road, hit hard by a car. The caller left the scene and left me alone and in critical condition.

 

Over the next hours I was transferred to two different rural hospitals and then eventually to a private hospital in Mexico City. It was established early that these first two hospitals did not have the right facilities or doctors to deal with such severe injuries, I would have had to wait too long and there was no guarantee they could perform the extensive treatment I needed. I needed specialist surgeons to give me the best chance of survival and full recovery. With help from my partner and our neighbours they organised a transfer to one of the country’s top hospitals. I arrived at Hospital ABC in Mexico City at 4pm that day.

When I finally arrived it was confirmed I had broken my femur, pelvis and cracked my fibula. They also discovered that the previous two hospitals had left my bone exposed, and had not noticed a large open cut down the back of my leg, left uncleaned and open for almost 9 hours.

The combination of these two errors meant I was highly susceptible to infection, which would effect how quickly I could be operated on to fix my bone breaks.

 

After performing many tests and cleaning me up I was sent for two emergency surgeries straight away, applying large metal pins into my bones to stabilise them and my condition. The pelvis is a very delicate bone, supporting many of the major nerves and arteries passing from the spine to the lower body, so it was critically important to stabilise this area and establish how bad the damage was. These metal pins sat outside my body and while it did provide structure to the badly damaged bones, it also meant I was almost completely immobile in my hospital bed waiting for the next stage of surgeries.

 

Over the next weeks I received 2 more surgeries, was given a high level of anti-biotics, painkillers and underwent many tests to determine if I had any brain damage, lung damage or extensive infection. Both additional surgeries replaced the exterior metal pins with metal screws, plates and rods internally to hold the bone together and allow it to heal.

I spent a total of 16 days in hospital with round the clock care, unable to perform the most basic tasks, I needed a team of nurses to help me do almost everything. I was also given physiotherapy to help move parts of my body and avoid muscular atrophy from the sheer lack of movement from being confined to my hospital bed. I will spend the next few months relearning to walk and gain back my strength. I have been assured that with enough work and time I will return to 100% functionality, which is very fortunate given the extent of my injuries, and thanks to the excellent work carried out by these medical professionals.

Luckily my body also put up a good fight, and extremely fortunately all the most scary possibilities were thankfully avoided. I avoided any major infection of my injuries and had no major damage to my brain or lungs.

 

I have private health insurance through my partner’s work, but we did not realise how inadequate its coverage was for the extent of my injuries and treatment needed. In this early phase the priority was receiving the high level of care I needed to help me survive, and as foreigners in this country without prior knowledge of the system we were completely unaware of what the costs or level of treatment might be, we were just told we needed the best possible care as soon as possible. We assumed and were assured that our insurance would cover my treatment needs. But the costs were much higher than we expected, and now after this whole intense experience we find ourselves with the added stress of having to deal with these high additional costs. Our extensive list of medications, tests, treatments, surgeries and rehabilitation made an itemised bill that was 5 pages long, not to mention that we were informed later that in the private system the salaries of our doctors and specialists are paid separately to your hospital stay.

 

Our insurance policy’s maximum claim limit is $40,000USD. At this point our total expenses for this experience are almost $80,000USD, meaning almost half our bill we have to cover ourselves.

 

With such high costs for medical bills and ongoing care, I am humbly asking for your help covering these massive costs.

 

I have been in Mexico for 6 months and am yet to gain full time employment here, I had been living on my savings and a small income from an online business I operate, I had been planning to return to Europe at the end of November to work full time and replenish my savings, which is no longer an option.

The main way I have earned money in the last ten years is by riding a bicycle, and for the next couple of months that is going to be impossible.

This leaves me with very few resources to cover these costs.

 

At this stage, we are finally back in our apartment for the next stage of recovery, I need daily physiotherapy to mobilise my damaged leg and restore its mobility. It will take time to put pressure on my legs again as we support the recovery of my pelvis, and will also require more hospital visits with my specialists to carefully monitor my progress, all of which won’t be covered by our insurance at this point.

 

it’s not easy to ask for this help, but in these exceptional circumstances I really need it.

Thank you so much for those with sufficient enough means to support me.

 

Thank you to my amazing partner for his unquestioning support and presence, to my family and close friends for helping me process the emotions of such an intense experience, and to all the medical professionals who helped me survive this, with both their expertise and their compassion.

 

(I have a limited number of postcards and posters of my own original photography from my recent trip cycling across Kyrgyzstan to send out as a token of my appreciation)