The family were unaware that daughter Michael Hadley had had a horrible accident until they saw staff cleaning blood in the 44-year-old’s hotel room in Majorca, Spain
Parents discovered their daughter had had a horrifying accident after finding blood in her hotel room.
Michaela Hadley has been placed in an induced coma in Spain after a fall resulted in a head injury, prompting her family to fundraise for her return home. The 44-year-old was enjoying a holiday in Majorca when she slipped in her hotel room.
She managed to call reception and was rushed to hospital, but her family only discovered the incident when they noticed staff cleaning blood from Michaela’s room. Her sister, Sharon McGrath, 46, along with their parents, hurried to the hospital where they were informed that Michaela’s kidneys were rapidly failing and her health was deteriorating.
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“I came out my room in the morning and the cleaner was cleaning the blood in Michaela’s room,” Sharon recounted.
“I asked the cleaner where she was, and she told me she was in hospital. Me and my mum went to the hospital with her passport and stuff, and my mum got took through to speak to my sister. The interpreter asked for the passcode to her phone, and then came back out to tell us she was moving into intensive care.
“We were taken to intensive care to then be asked if we knew Michaela’s kidneys weren’t working right. We went into the room, and my sister was awake at this point – we asked her if she was aware, and she said no. She was talking away like normal – they asked her about her medications and she answered all the questions.”
The next morning, the family received news from an interpreter that Michaela’s kidney function had further declined overnight, now operating at just 10%. Michaela from Glasgow was moved to a hospital nearly three hours away in Palma, hoping to begin dialysis and uncover what had caused her kidney failure.
But after she started suffering from sleep apnoea and struggling to breathe, medics found that Michaela was also battling pneumonia, forcing them to place her in an induced coma. On 2 August, following five days in hospital, the family had to fly home – only to get a phone call the following day urging them to return.
“On Monday morning, my brother got a phone call saying that family needed to get to the hospital urgently, because her kidneys had failed altogether,” said Sharon.
“We all had to pool money together to get my mum and dad out – with no accommodation – to be told that they thought we were still on holiday, and she was still in the induced coma. Her kidneys had failed altogether, but they were going to give her short bursts of dialysis, and she had pneumonia in both lungs. They came back home two weeks ago.”
The family are petrified to leave Michaela by herself, and are battling to obtain proper details about her treatment.
“From then, we’ve been getting a daily update from the hospital interpreter, aside from Saturday and Sunday. Now, she’s had a tracheotomy to put the ventilator in. She’s still got the double pneumonia, and her kidneys have improved very slightly,” Sharon said.
“It’s not the fault of the hospital and it’s not the fault of the interpreter, but the questions we’ve got aren’t really getting answered when we’re asking. We’re getting snippets of information through broken English and it’s frustrating.”
Sharon and her parents say they remain uncertain about what long-term care Michaela will require, and have no clue when she might be able to come home.
Now, frantic to ensure she isn’t alone when she regains consciousness, the family are fundraising to enable her parents to be beside her, and to gather money for any of Michaela’s additional medical costs.
“Face-to-face, if my mum and dad go out there, we’ll get more answers,” Sharon said.
“They’re saying it’s months she’s going to be stuck out there, because there’s multiple things wrong and it’s not a quick fix. My mum has been really distressed – it feels like it’s been bad news after bad news.
“None of us have been eating right or sleeping right – we can’t function. We don’t have the funds to just jump on a plane and pay for accommodation. We feel like we’re in limbo. I feel useless, like my hands are tied.
“I’m always wondering if she’s alright, what the next steps are. We’re so far away – planes and accommodation all cost a lot of money, and none of us have that kind of money.”
So far, the family’s GoFundMe has reached £950, which has enabled Sharon and Michaela’s parents to fly back out to fight for their daughter. “If they wake her up properly, my mum wants her to have a familiar face,” said Sharon.
“She’s her daughter, my sister – it’s a lot for anyone to take in in the same country, never mind miles and miles apart.”
With months to wait until Michaela is well enough to travel home, the family say they are “in turmoil.