A British tourist is fighting for his life in a Thai hospital after suffering a devastating scooter crash just 24 hours before he was due to fly home.
Zak Forsyth, 21, from Huyton, Merseyside, had been on a four-week holiday with friends when the accident occurred on Friday, leaving him in a coma with potentially life-changing injuries.
His girlfriend, Amy Elkin, 21, said the timing of the crash was “heartbreaking”, revealing the young man had no travel insurance, forcing his family to scramble to cover soaring medical costs.
Mr Forsyth was giving a friend a lift on his scooter when another vehicle suddenly pulled into his path.
He was sober at the time, and the other driver rushed him to hospital believing he may not survive.
The collision left him with bleeding on the brain, a blood clot, and multiple fractures to his nose, jaw, ankle and wrist, as well as damaged teeth.
His friends were unaware of the crash until Ms Elkin was contacted by police after the British Embassy alerted them.
Without insurance, hospital bills have mounted rapidly, with a transfer to a better facility costing £2,000, while a week in intensive care has already reached £5,000.
Zak Forsyth had been on a four-week holiday with friends when the accident occurred on Friday
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Two urgent brain operations are now required at a combined cost of £36,000, with further ICU care and eventual medical repatriation likely to push the total far higher.
“They just want money. We’ve been told just money, money, money. We’re all just worried,” Ms Elkin told the Daily Mail.
She has launched an online fundraiser, which has raised £19,000 towards a £30,000 target.
The 21-year-old said: “The most important thing is just getting the brain surgery out of the way. Everything else, we can deal with.
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Ms Elkin has vowed to remain by his side in Thailand until her beloved partner is well enough to return
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“We just need to get him into surgery,” she added.
Ms Elkin has vowed to remain by his side in Thailand until her beloved partner is well enough to return to Britain.
She said: “I am not coming home until he comes home with me.
“So, if we’ve got to stay over there for three months, four months, until he’s able to fly, boat, whatever – that’s what I’m going to do.”
Ms Elkin has launched an online fundraiser, which has raised £19,000 towards a £30,000 target
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The couple were approaching their second anniversary and had been planning to move to Australia together.
She said: “Our lives have been turned upside down in ways we never could have prepared for.
“Our whole life has been put on hold, everything. I can’t even sleep, I just want him to be OK.”
Mr Forsyth’s mother, Melanie McCourt, previously appealed to the Liverpool Echo: “We need as much help as we can to get him home.”
