Friday, 10 April 2009

Maltese youth stranded in Cambodia with serious injuries

Nestor Laiviera

Malta Star
09 April 2009

A Maltese young woman was seriously injured in a traffic accident while on holiday, and is currently recieving treatment in a Cambodian hospital.

Through a Facebook group aimed at raising funds to pay for the youth's hospital fees, Lia Gatt, wrote how her sister Lisa, aged 25, was injured in a motorcycle accident on Tuesday 7 April while visiting Cambodia. The youth broke her femur bone and required major surgery.

“She has also injured her hand and it is swollen to the size of a baseball as she has describe to me but they are unable to give her an x-ray as she is unable to move,” Lisa had written on Facebook, adding that it is most likely broken as well.

The family had originally explained that they were appealing for donations, but have now informed maltastar.com that relatives and friends have now contributed to raise the required sum.


Referring to her sister’s current predicament, Lia wrote that she was in “a very poor country with not a lot of staff at the clinic/hospital where she is at. When she (Lisa) calls out to them for a bedpan, they do not come.”

"This is making me very frustrated and angry and feeling very helpless,” Lia wrote.

“We have been trying to communicate with her through mobile phone as much as possible,” she also wrote.

A few hours after the first appeal, on Thursday at noon Lia explained to maltastar.com that family and friends have now helped the family raise the neceessary funds to pay for Lisa's operation and for the flights to bring her back home to Malta.

Lia had initially set up the facebook group to get help in obtaining funds, as Lisa has no health insurance.

The family is currently in contact with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, which is facilitating communication and dealings with Cambodian authorities. She added that the British Embassy has also stepped in and was also facilitating communications.

“Lisa is all alone out there, she has nobody with her. We’re trying to get dad flown out,” Lia told maltastar.com.

She added that the Facebook group has already been a huge help, as generous individuals have been in touch with her already asking her how they could help.

For more information, log on to the Facebook page "Help bring Lisa back to Malta!!!".

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