Jade Bird, 33, from Abergele, was waiting to fly home when she complained of a headache and earache – a scan found a brain infection which developed into meningitis
A North Wales mum is battling for her life in hospital after falling seriously ill at a holiday island airport.
Jade Bird, 33, had been enjoying a break in Tenerife and was scheduled to fly home last Wednesday. However, the mum-of-one from Abergele became unwell whilst at the airport, suffering from a headache and earache.
The seriousness of her condition prompted medics to call an ambulance to rush her to hospital. A scan revealed an infection on her brain and she was put into an induced coma. The infection has since progressed into meningitis.
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Jade’s sister-in-law Victoria Bird and her mum Janine have travelled to Tenerife to be by her side. They are now desperately trying to bring her home, but a medical evacuation will cost upwards of £50,000.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to support Jade, who works as a carer for vulnerable adults, and her family. More than £7,500 has already been raised, reports North Wales Live.
Victoria, from Rhuallt, said: “Late Wednesday night around 9pm I got a devastating phone call of my sisters in-law’s boyfriend saying my sister had taken ill and was extremely poorly all whilst they are on holiday in Tenerife. She was in the airport waiting to come home complaining of a headache and earache to the point they sent her in an ambulance to the nearest hospital where they have done a brain scan and found that she has an infection on her brain. From then they have placed her in an induced coma on a ventilator to try and rest her brain.
“Myself and her mum flew out first thing Thursday morning when obviously the devastating sight of her was heartbreaking, the infection on the brain has now lead to meningitis. We are absolutely heartbroken and it is so hard being in another country with the language barrier.
“There is going be a point very soon that we are going to have to fly home as we just don’t have the money to stay here, but how do we fly home without her? How can we leave her here knowing we can’t see her and not being able to get an update on if she is ok.
“The thought of it is killing myself and my mother in law. Our family is very small I don’t have any family and there is just my mother in law, my husband, our four children and my sister-in-law Jade who is a single mummy of a 6 year old little girl.
“We haven’t managed to break the news to her daughter yet as she’s staying with my husband. Skyla needs her mummy home.”
The family looked into medical evacuation flights and discovered this costs between £50,000 and £100,000 . They have launched a GoFundMe appeal.
In a heartfelt plea, Victoria said: “As you can imagine raising that amount of money without help from people like yourselves is going to be so hard. Jade is such a bubbly person, she’s so kind hearted and loving and would do anything for anyone.”
They are dreading having to tell Skyla her mum is poorly and fear this will be even worse if Jade is still in another country and she can’t see her. Victoria expressed: “If you are able to help I thank you from the bottom of my heart and will always be so grateful. We just need her home, we can’t leave her here but we can’t stay here forever ourselves as we can’t afford too.”
