British backpacker who broke her neck jumping into a pool in Thailand is to fly home on Christmas Day after well-wishers raised £65,000 towards her treatment and travel

Published: 18:14 GMT, 21 December 2018 | Updated: 18:35 GMT, 21 December 2018
A British backpacker who broke her neck in Thailand will begin her long journey home on Christmas Day. Sophie Wilson, 24, from Shepshed, Leicestershire, damaged two vertebrae diving into the shallow end of her hotel pool on December 1.

Her accident prompting a worldwide fundraising effort to help pay her hospital bills and fly her home.

Shortly before midnight on December 25, Sophie will be boarded onto a plane on a stretcher with three Thai medics and her parents to make the 13-hour flight from Chiang Mai to Heathrow.

There, an ambulance will meet the plane on the tarmac and she will be taken to Queens Medical Centre in Nottingham where she will be assessed for further treatment.

About £65,000 has been raised on the family's GoFundMe page, which will help cover the hospital costs, as well as the price of the flights for the family, and the three medical staff, who will have to be flown back to Thailand.

Jane said: 'We're very pleased with all the fundraising and so happy people have done so much to help us.

'The hospital is letting us leave without paying because we have to come home to get access to the money that's been raised.

'It's looking like the total cost will be about £91,000, including £37,500 on flights to come home and send the three medics back again.

'We've been waiting for the British Embassy to get us visas for the three medics to enter the UK, which seemed to take quite a while. But it was done within a week and from what the hospital have told us that's quick.'
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... paign=1490

explorer wrote: ↑Tue Dec 18, 2018 10:08 am This is a big reason not to have insurance.

Insurance companies dont always pay out.

They might pay out on this one now it is creating bad publicity.

This is a big reason not to have insurance?

Sure if the person brings it on themselves the insurance may not pay, but in my experience they usually do pay. Don't use exceptional cases as the norm.

I had to have surgery airlifted to Thailand, insurance paid a ton. My wife had gallbladder surgery, paid as well. Insurance company certainly did not like me, but they definitely paid.

GMJS-CEO wrote: ↑Sat Dec 22, 2018 11:03 pm

explorer wrote: ↑Tue Dec 18, 2018 10:08 am This is a big reason not to have insurance.

Insurance companies dont always pay out.

They might pay out on this one now it is creating bad publicity.

This is a big reason not to have insurance?

Sure if the person brings it on themselves the insurance may not pay, but in my experience they usually do pay. Don't use exceptional cases as the norm.

I had to have surgery airlifted to Thailand, insurance paid a ton. My wife had gallbladder surgery, paid as well. Insurance company certainly did not like me, but they definitely paid.

Quite true.

If she broke her neck shouldn’t it be in a proper brace?

According a Dutch expat website, she's flying home within a few days, due a crowd funding.

Sidewalker wrote: ↑Sun Dec 23, 2018 11:21 am According a Dutch expat website, she's flying home within a few days, due a crowd funding.

topic25359-10.html#p301007

CEOCambodiaNews wrote: ↑Sun Dec 23, 2018 11:28 am

Sidewalker wrote: ↑Sun Dec 23, 2018 11:21 am According a Dutch expat website, she's flying home within a few days, due a crowd funding.

topic25359-10.html#p301007

Sorry, I missed that.

Arget wrote: ↑Sun Dec 23, 2018 10:53 am silly man...... the people who are caring for her are qualified health specialists with certificates and all that doctor paper stuff.

It was a question.