A grandmother from Lincolnshire is stranded in a Spanish hospital after suffering a brain haemorrhage while on holiday in Benidorm. Mally Stubbings, 50, was placed in intensive care on Tuesday, June 9, following a CT scan that revealed a minor bleed on her brain.
Current Condition
While she has since been moved out of intensive care, she remains hospitalised a week later. Her relatives are uncertain when she will be discharged, let alone able to travel home.
Her sister-in-law, Natalie Hancock, said: "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."
Family Holiday Turns Tragic
The 50-year-old had been enjoying a family break in Spain with her three children, two grandchildren, son-in-law, brother and sister-in-law when the incident occurred. Mally has stage three terminal lung cancer, and on Friday, May 8, she completed two years of treatment aimed at prolonging her life.
Natalie revealed that due to Mally's treatment, they had been unable to take a full family holiday before and wanted to organise something meaningful together to create lasting memories. Mally departed with her children and grandchildren on Tuesday, June 2, and was met by her brother Stuart and Natalie on Tuesday, June 9, which they had arranged as a surprise.
Medical Emergency
However, Mally became severely ill at the beginning of the holiday due to a stomach infection and was taken to hospital on Monday, June 8, before being discharged the next day. Then on Wednesday, June 10, she lost the use of her legs and had several vacant 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."
Family Struggles
Mally's partner Carl, her daughter Gypsy and two grandchildren have remained in Benidorm to be with Mally. They were forced to vacate the hotel on Saturday, when they were scheduled to fly back to the UK, and secured an Airbnb, which cost them £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, launched a GoFundMe page to assist the family members who have stayed with Mally, while others had to return home 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."
Repatriation Costs
The family have explored engaging a private company to organise transportation for Mally back to the UK, but claim they were quoted in excess of £30,000. Having saved "really hard" for the holiday initially, this is not feasible for the family.
Natalie said: "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."
