Mum thanks ‘lifesavers’ who helped get son home
AMUM whose son is now battling locked in syndrome having been brought home from Asia has thanked the people who helped ‘save his life’.
Charlie McLaughlin, 39, suffered a stroke while in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, in August last year and was left in a coma.
His mum Esther, 69, a midwife at Macclesfield Hospital for the last 20 years, rushed to be at his bedside at the city’s Camlette Hospital.
Here the staff were superbly dedicated but the facilities were basic so Esther knew he needed to come back to Britain if he was to survive.
But unconscious Charlie was unable to reveal his insurance details so a huge amount needed to be raised - including his mum remortgaging her house.
And this was supplemented by a masses of fundraising back in Macclesfield, which the family remain eternally grateful for.
Esther said: “We want to thank everyone who helped, what they did was just amazing.
”It was during one of the blackest times ever, I was in a place I’d never been and it was so different. After what happened to Charles it helped me keep going.
“If it wasn’t for that I would have no son at all, because if he hadn’t have got home he would have died. People moan about the NHS here, but over there it is really basic.”
A gofundme page raised a staggering £54,000, staff at Macclesfield Hospital - particularly staff in the midwifery department nicknamed Charlie’s Angels - also raised large amount.
Charlie’s former colleagues at Macclesfield Marks and Spencer and Hornbuckle also helped hugely.
The money helped pay for Charlie, who has two older sisters, to be transferred to a private hospital in Thailand and then flown back home.
Now he is undergoing rehab in a Blackpool nursing home as he has very limited movement, cannot yet communicate verbally and is fed by a tube.
He had been in Asia as he decided to go travelling when made redundant from a stint working in pensions and insurance.
Esther, who now lives in Thornton-Cleveleys but still travels back to Macclesfield for work, is hoping Charlie can move home with her once she has a specially adapted house.
And though there is a long road to recovery there is hope - thanks to those who helped get Charlie home.
Esther said: “We are trying to keep his spirits up, he has physio and speech therapy. It is slow progress but he will get there.”