Tick bite girl begs to die in suicide clinic
A MOTHER has told of the ‘unbearable’ anguish of listening to her critically ill daughter beg every day to be taken to a Swiss suicide clinic.
Doctors have been left baffled by 23-year-old Kirsty Keep’s condition, which is thought to have started 11 years ago when she was bitten by a tick in her garden.
Her mother Theresa wants to take her to a clinic in the US in an attempt to get her well again – but says her daughter is more determined to travel to an assisted dying clinic.
In a bid to raise awareness – and fund the trip to the US – Mrs Keep, 43, has released a video of her daughter in hospital groaning in agony and receiving oxygen via a mask.
She said: ‘Kirsty has lost the will to live. She begs me to bring her home from hospital and let her die.
‘I can’t even put into words how that makes me feel. I hear it from her every day. It is unbearable.
‘She can’t take medication as she’s vomiting so much.
‘Kirsty is saying it’s too much and just take her to Switzerland as she has no faith left.’
Since being bitten aged 12, Miss Keep has suffered seizures, severe facial pains like electric shocks, and aches throughout her body. But her condition has worsened recently.
For seven years, she was thought to have lupus, when the immune system attacks healthy cells, tissue and organs. But recently a doctor at Guy’s Hospital in London said this is not the case.
Her family, from Maidstone, Kent, believe she may have Lyme Disease, a bacterial infection that has symptoms in common with lupus.
While tests for the condition in the UK have come back negative, the family believe a specialist centre in Florida may be their last hope and are now fundraising to take her there.
Mrs Keep, a single mother of three, says treatment at the Sponaugle Wellness Institute in Florida would last around 12 weeks, costing £41,760 before flights, food or board.
Her daughter had travelled to a clinic in Germany, which specialises in testing for chronic infections originating from tick-borne diseases. But staff there said she was too sick to receive treatment.
To donate visit www.gofundme.com/8pnwn724. Last night the family had raised more than £23,000.
‘She has no faith left’