Mum, 34, stuck in Spanish hospital over Christmas after suffering stroke on holiday
A 34-year-old mum has been stuck for months in a Spanish hospital after suffering a debilitating stroke on holiday.
Robyn Taylor is unable to speak, paralysed on the right hand side of her body, blind in one eye and receives food and water via a tube in her stomach.
She and her daughter Alana, 10, had been visiting her parents in Murcia when Robyn had a massive stroke on September 11, a day before the pair were due to fly home.
Her parents found her on the bedroom floor and she was rushed to hospital, where she suffered two brain haemorrhages and had part of her skull removed.
Although now out of a coma, Robyn, from Macclesfield in Cheshire, remains in hospital and needs repatriating to the UK, her family say, where she can receive the rehabilitation she cannot get in Spain.
It’s hoped she will be able well enough to fly in January.
However, the £12,565 repatriation costs are not covered by Robyn’s Global Health Insurance Card (GHIC), which provides Brits with emergency and medically necessary healthcare across the EU.
The family therefore launched an online fundraiser and managed to raise the funds that way.
Dad Tony, 59, said: ‘We have lots of photos of her and the family on the wall in her room, in the hope it jogs something. Some days we get recognition from her, other days we get nothing.
‘She has no history of stroke symptoms and there is no family history, we want to know why it happened at such a young age.
‘It is a situation you have never been in before, when it first happened it was like a parallel universe and a massive emotional rollercoaster.
‘Three weeks felt like six months, it consumes you and becomes everything you do, think and talk about. Robyn is bubbly and a bit fiery, she’s a loving 34-year-old.’
Once home, it’s hoped Robyn will begin physiotherapy, speech therapy and neuro stimulation.
Which parts of her brain can function again and how long this will take remain unknowns.
Tony and Robyn’s mum Karen, who have lived in Spain for 15 years, arecurrently looking after Alana.
Although efforts have been made to shield Alana from the worst of it she has been told her mum may not be the same again.
Tony said: ‘It is all up in the air and that is the frustration. We try to remain positive.’
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