A woman remains in an induced coma in Spain following a fall that left her with a head injury, while her family frantically attempt to raise funds to bring her home. Michaela Hadley, 44, was holidaying in Majorca when she slipped inside her hotel room.
After contacting reception, she was rushed to the hospital; however, her family remained unaware of the incident until they discovered staff cleaning blood from Michaela’s room. As her sister, Sharon McGrath, 46, dashed to the hospital alongside her parents, the family were told that Michaela’s kidneys were rapidly failing – and her condition continued to worsen.
“I came out my room in the morning and the cleaner was cleaning the blood in Michaela’s room,” said Sharon. “I asked the cleaner where she was, and she told me she was in hospital. Me and my mum went to the hospital with her passport and stuff, and my mum got took through to speak to my sister.
“The interpreter asked for the passcode to her phone, and then came back out to tell us she was moving into intensive care. We were taken to intensive care to then be asked if we knew Michaela’s kidneys weren’t working right. We went into the room, and my sister was awake at this point – we asked her if she was aware, and she said no. She was talking away like normal – they asked her about her medications and she answered all the questions.”
The next day, the family learnt through an interpreter that Michaela’s kidney function had plummeted overnight, now operating at just 10%.
Michaela was moved to a hospital almost three hours away in Palma, with hopes of beginning dialysis and identifying what had caused her kidney failure.
But after she started experiencing episodes of sleep apnoea and breathing difficulties, medics discovered that Michaela was also battling pneumonia, forcing them to place her in an induced coma.
On August 2, following Michaela’s five-day hospital stay, the family had to return home – only to receive a telephone call the following day urging them to come back.
“On Monday morning, my brother got a phone call saying that the family needed to get to the hospital urgently, because her kidneys had failed altogether,” said Sharon.
“We all had to pool money together to get my mum and dad out, with no accommodation, to be told that they thought we were still on holiday, and she was still in the induced coma.
“Her kidneys had failed altogether, but they were going to give her short bursts of dialysis, and she had pneumonia in both lungs. They came back home two weeks ago.”
The family are petrified to leave Michaela unattended, and is battling to obtain proper information about her treatment.
“From then, we’ve been getting a daily update from the hospital interpreter, aside from Saturday and Sunday. Now, she’s had a tracheotomy to put the ventilator in.
“She’s still got the double pneumonia, and her kidneys have improved very slightly. It’s not the fault of the hospital and it’s not the fault of the interpreter, but the questions we’ve got aren’t really getting answered when we’re asking. We’re getting snippets of information through broken English and it’s frustrating.”
Sharon and her parents reveal they remain unclear about what long-term care Michaela will require, with no indication of when she might return home.
Now, frantic to ensure she isn’t alone when she regains consciousness, the family are fundraising to enable her parents to be by her side, and to cover any additional medical costs for Michaela.
“Face-to-face, if my mum and dad go out there, we’ll get more answers,” Sharon explained.
“They’re saying it’s months she’s going to be stuck out there, because there’s multiple things wrong and it’s not a quick fix.
“My mum has been really distressed – it feels like it’s been bad news after bad news. None of us have been eating right or sleeping right – we can’t function. We don’t have the funds to just jump on a plane and pay for accommodation.
“We feel like we’re in limbo. I feel useless, like my hands are tied. I’m always wondering if she’s alright, what the next steps are. We’re so far away – planes and accommodation all cost a lot of money, and none of us have that kind of money.”
So far, the family’s GoFundMe has reached £1205, which has enabled Sharon and Michaela’s parents to fly back out to advocate for their daughter.
“If they wake her up properly, my mum wants her to have a familiar face,” said Sharon. “She’s her daughter, my sister – it’s a lot for anyone to take in in the same country, never mind miles and miles apart.”
With months to wait until Michaela is well enough to travel home, the family say they are “in turmoil.
“We’ve got the flight details and accommodation details so we can post where the money’s going,” said Sharon. Multiple trips are going to have to be made to be with her before we can get her home, according to what the doctors have said.
“I know it’s hard times for everybody right now, but even 50p would still go a long way. Things are moving, but they’re moving slowly – anything at all that anybody could donate would be very much appreciated by all the family.”
A link to the fundraiser can be found at GoFundMe here.