Coma hell Mekala is coming home Family’s praise for hero medic who saved their girl
A FITNESS instructor who was left in a coma after getting a sore throat on holiday in Vietnam is set to finally return home to Scotland tomorrow.
At one stage, Mekala Osborne had just a five per cent chance of surviving pneumonia she contracted in September.
The 22-year-old was so ill her mum Yvonne and dad Jimmy, from Prestonpans, East Lothian, were told to “pray she survives”.
But thanks to a brilliant surgeon and friends and family who raised £12,000, Mekala is well enough for the gruelling trip home. Even though she still has a tracheotomy breathing tube and is on a ventilator, she will fly to
Manchester tomorrow before being transferred to the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh. She will be accompanied by Yvonne, 51, and the hero medic who saved her – Dr Winston Jong, from Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore.
Last night, taxi driver Jimmy, 64, said: “If it hadn’t been for Dr Jong, Mekala would definitely have died.
“He’s been absolutely brilliant. He went above and beyond the call of duty to save Mekala.
“He is one of the best and most respected doctors in Singapore and Mekala was very lucky to have him.
“He insisted on flying back to the UK with her to keep her safe. He’s been absolutely astonishing.”
Yvonne, a minibus driver for elderly care home residents, flew out to be with her sick daughter after close family friend and local radio DJ Davie Martin set up a fundraiser.
Jimmy said he’s going to spend a “very long time” thanking people, especially Dr Jong, Davie and ITF, Mekala’s insurance company.
He added: “It’s been terribly worrying and really traumatic for us.
“Physically, it’s been so draining just seeing her lying there linked up to various machines. At one stage she had three tubes going into her lungs alone.
“It was touch and go at some stages, especially when she was being moved from Vietnam to Singapore, when we were told to pray that she survives the trip – we were told it was about a five per cent chance she’d make the journey.”