Boy's 'life saving' act as dad left fighting for life in Bali
The father remains in critical condition and awaiting a flight home to Melbourne.
A Melbourne father who is fighting for his life in Bali was saved by his son who quickly jumped into action when the 43-year-old collapsed and hit his head, a family friend has revealed.
Rajiv "Raj" Jayarajah was in his Nusa Dua hotel room where he was staying with his wife and 10-year-old son Ari when he suddenly suffered a seizure, resulting in a life-threatening brain haemorrhage.
Ari was in the room at the time and witnessed the medical emergency and quickly alerted the hotel staff. The move has been dubbed "life-saving" by family friend Andrew Macqueen.
"His wife was off for an early morning walk, if the son had gone as well, who knows, (Jayarajah) could have been on the ground for an hour or so by himself,” Andrew told 7News overnight.
With the family's insurance company reportedly disputing responsibility for paying for an emergency medivac flight out of the country, the family has forked out hundreds of thousands of dollars and is facing a nervous wait.
Family spend $200,000 on emergency flight
Raj remains in critical condition in a Balinese hospital but could fly home to Melbourne as early as today, Andrew said from Bali.
So far the family has racked up around $40,000 worth of medical bills, plus an additional $200,000 for the emergency LifeFlight journey home which they managed to secure overnight. The costs are not covered by the family's insurance meaning they've had to fund it themselves in order to get the father of one the specialist care he urgently needs in Australia.
Andrew, who was also holidaying in Bali when the incident took place, has started a GoFundMe page to help raise funds for the family. So far, almost $180,000 has been raised which will go towards the cost of the emergency flight home.
"We’re just trying to get it all expedited as quick as we can," Andrew said, adding that it's an extremely sensitive operation as Raj requires a team of medics to look after him.
Doctors still don't know how much damage has been done to his brain but have told the family "the road to recovery is long".
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