A British grandmother remains stranded in Spain after suffering a brain haemorrhage while on holiday in Benidorm. Mally Stubbings, 50, from Boston, Lincolnshire, was rushed into intensive care on June 9 following a CT scan that revealed a minor bleed on her brain.
Although she has since been moved from the intensive care unit, she remains hospitalised a week later. Her family is uncertain about her discharge date, let alone her journey back to Britain, according to Lincolnshire Live.
Her sister-in-law, Natalie Hancock, explained: "She's still stuck in the hospital in Benidorm. She's not in intensive care any more, she's on a normal ward, but they have told us she's not allowed to fly back to England because of the air pressure. They've got no idea when she's going to be discharged."
The 50-year-old had been enjoying a family getaway in Spain alongside her three children, two grandchildren, son-in-law, brother, and sister-in-law when the incident occurred. Mally is battling stage three terminal lung cancer, and on May 8 she completed two years of treatment designed to prolong her life.
Natalie revealed that due to Mally's medical treatment, they had been unable to take a proper family break and were keen to create lasting memories together. Mally left with her children and grandchildren on June 2, before being joined by her brother Stuart and Natalie on June 9 as a surprise.
However, Mally became severely ill at the beginning of the break due to a stomach bug and was taken to hospital on June 8, before being discharged the next day. Then on June 10, she lost all feeling in her legs and suffered several blank seizures, prompting her family to rush her to A&E.
Natalie said: "An ICU doctor came and said we are going to admit her to the ICU as she has a small bleed on the brain. She was in the ICU for a full day and night, and then she was moved to a normal ward and has been there since."
Mally's partner Carl, her daughter Gypsy, and two grandchildren have remained in Benidorm to be by her side. They were forced to check out of the hotel on Saturday, when they were scheduled to fly back to the UK, and secured an Airbnb costing £1,000 for the week.
Natalie said: "They have insurance, but it seems you have to pay for everything and then claim it back from the insurance company lately, so we're in a bit of a predicament, really."
Natalie, 47, set up a GoFundMe page to assist family members who have remained abroad with Mally, while others were forced to return due to work obligations or because they could not afford to extend their stay. She said: "We can't leave her out there on her own. There's a massive language barrier in the hospital as well; there is a translator, but you can't always get hold of her, so they're having to use Google Translate all the time."
Natalie added: "We have no clue how long she's going to be out there." The family considered hiring a private company to organise Mally's return to the UK, but they were quoted a staggering sum of over £30,000. Given that they had saved "really hard" just for the holiday, this is simply not feasible for them.
Natalie stated: "It's absolutely insane, no normal person has that type of money. They had all saved really hard, and this holiday was to make memories, and we have no memories, we just have bad ones now."
