Canadian needs A RH negative or O RH negative blood in Phuket

[Chittychangchang]

Taken from a social network post..

Dear friends...please share this post! My little brother, David Connelly, was in serious accident in Phuket, Thailand two days ago! He is in desperate need of A RH negative or O RH negative blood! It is very rare blood type in Thailand and the hospital doesn't have the amount required if/when he needs surgery. There are ongoing medical complications and he is in critical condition.
People can donate at any Red Cross in Thailand and specify that it is for Mr. David Connelly at Bangkok hospital in Phuket. But you must be in Thailand to donate!

[billy the kid]

immm same as me but i'm over here. would donate if i could.

[misskit]

B.C. man's storybook Thailand trip ruined by horrific accident, $170,000 medical bill

Life had really turned around for David Connelly.

At 40 years old, a long struggle with addiction and depression was finally behind him. He’d found a new job in Victoria. And he was ready to reconcile with his father, who’d moved to Thailand 15 years ago.

So, in late March, after overcoming his terror of flying and booking a flight to Phuket, David packed his bags and left his home in the small Fraser Valley community of Deroche.

The trip was life-changing. Not long after checking into a hotel, he found himself falling in love with its manager, Mai Denwittayanan. Over the next month, the romance blossomed while he and his father worked to make amends, going fishing and catching up on all the lost years.

But in an instant, David’s life took another twist, this one tragic.

On May 4, he was travelling by scooter through Phuket when he was run down by a dump truck.

He was found on the road clinging to life, his hip bone crushed and pelvis broken, both lungs punctured, a trio of cracked vertebrae, broken ribs, torn back muscles and internal bleeding. A local shortage of A-Rh negative and O-Rh negative blood sent his friends and family on a social-media scramble for donors, said his sister Karen Connelly.

“As you can imagine, it was horrible,” said Karen. “Just the way that it was described to us, we thought he was going to die.”

But after weeks of intensive care, she said, he has recovered “miraculously.”

Her brother remains in a hospital bed in Phuket, where he recently celebrated his 41st birthday. Denwittayanan has been by his side every day, and since he was moved out of intensive care last week, she’s been sleeping in a cot in his room.

His health has stabilized and on Friday, he comes home. But David, a woefully inexperienced traveller, didn’t have travel health insurance. His family faces hospital and air ambulance bills climbing toward $170,000.

“The doctors were telling us he was probably going to die, so compared to that, the news is good,” Karen said. “He’s so happy to be here.”

She said her brother doesn’t yet know this, but a GoFundMe campaign has raised more than $60,000 toward his health costs. It’s just enough to cover the cost of flying him home on a commercial stretcher flight, during which he’ll be escorted by doctors from Vancouver’s Executive Air Ambulance.

But despite the outpouring of generosity from family and friends in Thailand and across Canada, $110,000 in costs still remain, Karen said.

She wants to remind travellers that “it’s absolutely crucial to buy travel health insurance,” adding: “I know other people will go through exactly what we’re going through.”

Will McAleer, vice-president of the Travel Health Insurance Association of Canada, said it’s typically young travellers, under age 55, who leave the country uninsured.

“You get some of the folks who think, ‘Well, hey, nothing’s going to happen to me’ … or they just don’t realize the risk,” he said.

McAleer said the association has heard from Canadians with “Code Blue” health emergencies in the U.S. paying up to $10,000 per hour for hospital stays, when they could have paid just $2 or $3 per day for coverage.

He recommends travellers call their insurer’s toll-free phone number if they need help understanding hospital services and charges when out of country.

B.C. man's storybook Thailand trip ruined by horrific accident, $170,000 medical bill

[BaitongBoy]

Sounds very lucky to have people donate...What about the $16 million needed as ransom for the poor guy held captive in the Philippines?...

[Baas Babelaas]

Would like to buy some travel insurance for my next trip to the PI.

Currently insured by AIA. Chat to them? Or get an independent insurer?