WE NEED £30k TO GET DYLAN HOME
Friends and family appeal for help after insurance wrangle keeps holiday crash Scot stuck abroad
A SCOTS cyclist badly injured in Ecuador has been left stranded by insurance red tape.
Insurers have refused to meet 25-year-old Dylan Brown’s medical costs because doctors were told he may have taken drugs before the accident.
And even though his family are confident that tests will prove he had not, they have been told they can only submit an appeal when he is home in Britain.
So friends have launched an appeal to raise £30,000 for a medical airlift.
Without it, the medical bills, already at £46,000, will continue to mount up.
Dylan, from Dennistoun, Glasgow, had emergency surgery to reduce bleeding on his brain after being rushed to hospital in Quito on July 27.
An English woman who he had met while travelling took him to hospital and was asked if he had taken alcohol or drugs.
As a precaution, she told them it was a possibility. But the fact the initial medical report stated he “may have smoked cannabis” caused the insurers to pull the plug.
Friend Darryl Foley, 26, said: “Cannabis is legal in Ecuador for personal use but nothing showed up in Dylan’s system.”
Car salesman Darryl launched a GoFundMe appeal, which managed to raise money to get Dylan’s family to his bedside.
He said: “However, we were hit with a massive blow when the insurance company told us they wouldn’t be covering any of the medical costs. The hospital report has been revised and submitted to the insurance company.
“But as they are a British company, the appeal will have to be submitted by the family and Dylan when they are back home.”
Darryl said an air ambulance evacuation was the only real option now.
He added: “We are doing whatever we can as his family simply cannot afford this incredible sum.” To donate, visit: www. gofundme.com/dylanbrowns-fund-page A narrowboat was found abandoned on an industrial estate path in the Midlands. The boat was dumped in Smethwick, not far from the Birmingham Canal.