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AN appeal has been launched to help cover the costs of flying home an expat mum, who is currently being treated in a Bahrain hospital, to the care of her family in South Africa.
Tricia Powell is seriously ill at Ibrahim Khalil Kanoo Medical Complex after being struck by an extremely rare strain of viral encephalitis, an acute inflammation of the brain where the immune system stops functioning putting the patient at risk to countless diseases.
Tricia, 31, an employee of Alexander Ross - an events management company in Bahrain - contracted the virus on a business trip to South America and was taken to Salmaniya Medical Complex in March where she lay in coma and was put on oxygen and intravenous fluid.
"We had a meeting with Tricia's doctors on Sunday and although she has made remarkable improvement, she needs rigorous and pain-staking rehabilitation before she can hope to recover fully," said Flash Powell, Tricia's father, who has flown from South Africa with his son Marc, and is in Bahrain to arrange Tricia's medical evacuation to South Africa.
"Tricia has moments of wakefulness from her induced coma, is able to recognise us, nod her head and move her body slightly. She seems to mouth some words but is unable to speak because of tubes in her mouth," added Mr Powell, who is returning to South Africa today with her nine-year-old son Ryan, a student of the British School of Bahrain.
"We had just settled in our new lives in Bahrain when Tricia fell ill," said Tricia's boyfriend, Theunis Strydom, 37, who moved with Tricia and Ryan in October 2007 and works for SJ Media Group in Bahrain.
A medical evacuation is planned for the end of this month. However, the cost to undertake this course of action and after care is far beyond the financial means of Tricia's family.
The cost of the journey which involves a professional South African medical evacuation team is estimated at BD7,000. Add the transfer to a care home and a year of daily treatment needed to get Tricia back on her feet and the cost is likely to soar to a staggering BD100,000.
Tricia's present medical insurance does not cover her medical evacuation or her treatment and her road to recovery will be long, arduous and challenging. Specialists envisage at least 12 months of rehabilitation with individual therapists in the fields of speech, memory and learning to walk again but the exact prognosis is difficult given Tricia's current comatose state.
Marc has established a Trust Fund in her name: www.triciapowelltrust.com with the hope that this will assist with the huge costs of evacuating her from Bahrain and her ongoing rehabilitation.
GulfWeekly readers willing to help can make donations to:
Tricia Powell Trust Fund
Nel and Stevens Trust Account
First National Bank
Greytown, South Africa
ACC: 2 343 144 243
BC: 220 131
REF: PO 85001
