A grandma from Lincolnshire is stuck in Spain after suffering a brain bleed during a holiday to Benidorm.
Mally Stubbings, from Boston, was admitted into intensive care on Tuesday, June 9, after a CT scan revealed a small bleed on her brain.
Although she is no longer in the intensive care ward, she remains in hospital a week later, and her family is unsure when she can leave, let alone return 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.”
The 50-year-old had been on a family holiday in Spain with her three children, two grandchildren, son-in-law, brother and sister-in-law at the time.
Mally has stage three terminal lung cancer, and on Friday, May 8, she finished two years of treatments to help extend her life.
Natalie explained that due to Mally’s treatment, they had been unable to take a full family holiday and wanted to do something special together to make some memories.
Mally flew out with her children and grandchildren on Tuesday, June 2, and was joined by her brother Stuart and Natalie on Tuesday, June 9, which they had organised as a surprise.
However, Mally was extremely unwell at the start of the holiday due to a stomach infection, and was admitted to hospital on Monday, June 8, before being released the following day.
Then on Wednesday, June 10, she lost the use of her legs and had several vacant seizures, so her family took her to A&E.
Carl and Mally -Credit:Natalie Hancock
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 remain in Benidorm to support Mally.
They had to leave the hotel on Saturday, when they were due to return to the UK, and found 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, created a GoFundMe page to help the family members who have stayed out there with Mally, whilst others had to return due to work commitments or because they couldn’t afford to 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 have looked at hiring a private firm to arrange transport for Mally back to the UK, but say they were quoted over £30,000.
After saving “really hard” for the holiday in the first place, this is not an option 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.”