An Irish mother has described the terrifying ordeal of her three-year-old son requiring emergency brain surgery after a serious fall in Dubai, turning what was meant to be a dream vacation into “the biggest nightmare of our life,” reports The Mirror.
Deborah Duffy, from Lettershandoney near Derry, is sharing her experience to underline the critical importance of having travel insurance when going abroad.
Speaking from Dubai, where her son Reuben is still recovering in hospital, she recalled the frightening moment he slipped by the pool just a day into their holiday on Friday (June 6), suffering a brain haemorrhage, reports The Mirror.
Prompt medical attention by specialists at the Saudi German Hospital in Dubai was key in saving Reuben’s life, and while doctors are hopeful for his full recovery following a stay in ICU, the absence of travel insurance could have left the family with a bill reaching into hundreds of thousands of euros.
Deborah explained: “We literally just landed in Dubai on Friday morning. We did a few ‘touristy’ things for the first couple of hours,” reports The Mirror.
“We travelled late on the Thursday night and we purposely picked that flight just because Reuben is only three and it would be easier for him to travel at night – he would be sleeping,” she told Belfast Live. We went to see the Burj Khalifa and that on Friday morning, came back to the hotel, and just went to the pool just to see what it was like. We had only arrived a few hours [earlier] and Reuben, just being a three-year-old, was carrying on – throwing shoes into the pool, just, you know, carrying on as a three-year-old does,” reports The Mirror.
“He turned around and slipped, and hit his head. He cried so we were, obviously, comforting him at the pool and then he came around. I said ‘you know what it’s very warm, we’ll go up to the room’, and he sat and watched his iPad for half an hour,” reports The Mirror.
But things soon took a turn for the worse, as Deborah detailed further.
He became very dizzy, struggled to climb onto the bed, and Deborah instinctively sensed something was wrong. “I actually got really upset because my son was just not acting right. He was just acting very different, so I rang reception and then reception brought the paramedics up. He [the paramedic] said, oh, ‘he’s just very tired from travelling’ and I was like, ‘no, he’s not – he’s suffering’,” reports The Mirror.
Deborah pushed for an ambulance to take Reuben to hospital – a decision that proved crucial. The toddler’s injuries were far more serious than initially thought.
At the Saudi German Hospital, he was assessed by a paediatrician and sent for scans, which revealed bleeding in his brain, reports The Mirror.
Reuben underwent brain surgery and spent several days in intensive care, including time on a ventilator. He has since been moved to the children’s ward.
Deborah said he was transferred out of ICU on Tuesday, adding: “They [the doctors at the Saudi German Hospital] are very, very happy with him,” though she acknowledged, “But he still has a long road to go. He will remain in the hospital probably for quite a while, and we won’t be able to fly home for some time because I will not be putting him at risk at any time,” reports The Mirror.
She emphasised the importance of travel insurance: “I just want to tell people the importance of getting travel insurance. It’s mental what this treatment will cost – right now it’s standing around 140,000 – and if we’re here for another substantial amount of time, it will obviously increase,” reports The Mirror.
Reflecting on the suddenness of the event, Deborah said: “If you look at how this happened – a typical three-year-old – this could happen anywhere or to any family in a split second. He was literally less than half-a-metre away from me when he slipped, fell, and this could happen to anyone.”
She also expressed deep gratitude to the hospital team: “Thank God for the treatment he received in this hospital. He had one of the best neurologists in the world and he saved his life. We never thought we would find ourselves in this position. We thought this was going to be a holiday of a lifetime, not the biggest nightmare of our life. The doctors here are just different class. At home, God forbid, he would have probably went to Belfast and maybe he wouldn’t have been seen for hours or days,” reports The Mirror.
Deborah continued to thank her family and wider circle of support. She mentioned that she and Reuben’s father, Niall, are deeply appreciative of the support received from Reuben’s grandmother and aunt during this incredibly difficult time, reports The Mirror.
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