An Australian grandmother is fighting for her life in a Bali hospital after slipping in a restaurant bathroom and tumbling into an open stairwell during her annual holiday.
Estelle Ravenscroft, 79, from Busselton, around 220km south of Perth in Western Australia, was having lunch with her husband, Keith, at a Bali restaurant last week when she suffered the horrific fall.
Mrs Ravenscroft, who has osteoporosis, was in the ladies’ bathroom when she slipped and fell into the open stairwell, landing on the steps below.
“A simple lunch at a restaurant and a visit to the ladies bathroom has ended up being a nightmare beyond belief,” her daughter, Leonie Walsh, wrote on GoFundMe.
Emergency services took her to hospital, where doctors found she had suffered six serious fractures to her upper legs—three in each leg.
Doctors administered an opioid injection in an effort to control her excruciating pain.
However, Mrs Ravenscroft then experienced a severe adverse reaction to the medication.
Western Australian woman Estelle Ravenscroft, 79, is fighting for her life in a Bali hospital after suffering a horrific fall.
The 79-year-old grandmother was at a restaurant with her husband when she slipped in the bathroom and fell into an open stairwell.
“She was given an opioid injection for the pain, which caused a terrible reaction,” Ms Walsh wrote.
“Her vitals plummeted and she started convulsing. This was so severe that we were close to losing her.”
Because of the reaction, doctors had to manually realign the bones in both legs without using pain medication before placing the limbs in traction with weights.
Mrs Ravenscroft underwent emergency surgery lasting nine hours. The operation was not carried out entirely under general anaesthetic because the opioids had affected her heart.
She remains in intensive care, where her condition has deteriorated.
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“Post surgery, she has had to have two blood transfusions for the amount of blood loss,” her daughter said.
Ms Walsh said her mother’s ongoing treatment for heart, oxygen and blood-related complications arising from the reaction to the pain medication had become increasingly serious.
“Her condition isn’t good. Her mouth and throat have now swollen, affecting her even more.”
She suffered six severe fractures to both legs and underwent nine hours of surgery. Mrs Ravenscroft also had a serious reaction to pain relief medication that affected her heart.
A GoFundMe campaign has been created to help cover the cost of Mrs Ravenscroft’s surgery and ongoing medical treatment. She is pictured with her husband, Keith.
Mrs Ravenscroft remains unable to communicate and was still in hospital on Saturday, with her husband by her side.
The couple’s family are also concerned about her eventual discharge from hospital, which remains a long way off, as her condition would require specialised transport and care once she returns home to Australia.
‘She may require specialist hospital treatment and extensive rehabilitation in Perth,’ Mrs Ravenscroft’s great-niece Brieanna Fisher told WA Today.
‘This could mean Estelle and Keith are unable to return directly to their Busselton home and may face a prolonged period away from their familiar surroundings, friends and community.’
The couple’s distress has been compounded by the fact that they did not have travel insurance, despite having taken out cover for their numerous previous trips to Bali.
Ms Walsh started a GoFundMe to help raise funds to cover the cost of her mother’s surgery and ongoing medical treatment.
The cost for this kind of surgery as well as the previous and ongoing medical treatment is monumental,’ she wrote.
‘On behalf of all the family, we want to say thank you to everyone who has been able to donate no matter how big or small.’
