Page 123 - Xmo Strata - Bulletin Archive

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Despite our efforts, he was still bleeding and urgently in need of intravenous fluids. We
managed to call the emergency services again, via an interpreter, to get a doctor to meet
the ambulance half way as it returned to Faro hospital. This action was later to prove a
life saving instruction.

As if Tom’s parents were not traumatised enough, they were then denied access into the
ambulance and had to follow in their own car. Can you imagine what would have been
going through their minds?

Tom’s condition was too serious for Faro hospital to deal with and without hesitation, he
was air lifted to Lisbon hospital where prompt action was taken and he was immediately
put on a life support machine, whereupon he remained for two weeks. His organs had
started to shut down due to the amount of blood he had lost. He had by this point started
to go into renal failure.

The next few days of our family holiday were tormented by what had happened and

reality had sunk in. To top it all, it was a Portuguese public holiday and nobody was
working so my wife, some newly found friends and I were left to clean up the glass, the
blood and even a piece of ‘chopped off’ heel. What was worse, we couldn’t find a way
of contacting the hospital, we didn’t even know he had been transferred. My wife
knowing the seriousness of his condition eluded to us fearing the worst.

Tom’s father had earlier got one of the residents phone numbers and made contact with
us about five days later. He told us he was in intensive care and his condition was
critical. The next day he phoned back and told us that he had had to have his leg
amputated above his knee. Not only had he severed his main femoral artery but his
popletiel artery as well. Miraculously, he had survived.

Some five months later we received a very poignant e-mail from Tom’s parents, where
they expressed such gratitude for saving their son’s life. Tom had been so brave through
all of this and was actually philosophical about the whole thing. He was now a member
of the disabled basket ball team and looking forward to being measured for his new
prosthesis. On the other hand his parents had gone through all the emotions and had
suffered post distress trauma themselves, now having a son who was disabled.

The whole point behind our story is to remind you all that you should not expect the
same safety, emergency and hospital treatment standards when on holiday outside of the
UK.