Laurence Dollimore
A BRITISH tourist will receive urgent medical treatment in the UK after a fundraising target to get her home was met this weekend.
Robyn, 34, needed £12,500 to be transferred via road ambulance from Murcia, with her family setting up a Just Giving page to secure the funds.
The total has now surpassed that mark, more than doubling from just over £6,000 earlier in the week, when Robyn’s story was published in the Olive Press and spread far and wide on social media.
Robyn suffered a life-changing stroke while visiting her parents, Anthony and Karen Sumnar, in early September.
It happened the day before she was due to fly back to Britain, followed by two brain haemorrhages, one of which has left her with permanent brain damage.
After spending two weeks in a coma, Robyn urgently needs to return to the UK by ambulance to receive life-changing neuro-rehabilitation – care that she is not covered for under her GHIC card in Spain – and which also does not cover repatriation costs.
In an update yesterday, the Just Giving page said: “You the people have helped us reach our target funds so that my Auntie & Uncle can organise and facilitate Robyn’s repatriation back to the UK so she can start her recovery, rehabilitation and healing process.
“We will forever be grateful for your generosity and kindness at one of the hardest times of the year – Xmas time.
“So from our family to yours, have a very merry xmas and a happy new year and be rest assured that without your love and support, we couldn’t have done any of this. With love, Robyns family.”
Robyn’s father Anthony, who has lived with his wife in Roldan for 15 years, previously told the Olive Press: “The day before Robyn was due to travel back to the UK on the 11th, was when the tragedy happened, we went into her bedroom to wake her and found her on the floor not responding, we called the ambulance who took her to Los Arcos Hospital in San Javier.
“It was there they confirmed after a scan that she had suffered a severe stroke measuring 21 on the INHSS (stroke scale) and immediately transferred her to Arrixaca hospital in Murcia city that has the specialist neurosurgery facility.
“Within six hours Robyn then suffered a brain haemorrhage and was operated on, four hours later she suffered another one that was deeper into her brain than the first and we had to sign a consent form before they would operate as this one was touch and go if she would survive it.
“Thankfully, she did, however we were informed it would result in permanent brain damage due to the location of the bleed (basal ganglia).”
Anthony explained: “Three weeks later she was moved onto a neurosurgical high dependency ward awaiting the replacement of a part of her skull that was removed during the second operation, to allow her brain to swell outside from the inflammation.
“The operation was a success and on November 20 she was transferred back to Los Arcos where she is currently.
“Her right-hand side paralysis remains, and she can’t see out of her right eye, she cannot speak, communicate, or perform simple requests, she is fed and hydrated via a direct tube into her stomach and her meds are administered via a tube in her arm.
“She desperately needs rehabilitation that she is not covered for on her GHIC card hence the fundraiser.”
