British woman, 29, found alone and injured with mysterious black eye in South Korea
A British influencer has been found in her South Korean apartment with a mysterious black eye and multiple organ failure.
Ashley Surcombe, 29, was taken to a hospital’s intensive care unit and is suffering from severe dehydration.
Police had bashed down her door after family friends became concerned she had stopped replying to messages.
Ashley, who has been living in Seoul for five years and documenting her life there to more than 465,000 followers on Instagram, was found slumped on the bathroom floor.
Mystified officers said there were no signs of forced entry and Ashley lived alone.
The video creator was last heard from on Instagram over six weeks ago, advertising a Korean beer and wishing her followers a Happy Chinese New Year.
Her family, who are over 5,500 miles away in Evesham, are now desperate to find thousands of pounds to cover Ashley’s care and might be forced to sell their house to find the cash.
Her sister Kat Surcombe, a 33-year-old aerospace engineer, told the MailOnline: ‘We just don’t know what happened and we are trying to find out exactly, but it’s been difficult, and we have had to rely on contacts out there.
‘We were supposed to speak with her at 8pm on Sunday (Korean time) but she never answered, and we didn’t get any response from messages so that’s when we called police through a friend of my dad who has contacts out there.
‘About a week ago she told us she she hit her head against the door and got a nasty bruise on her eye.
‘She was found unresponsive and unconscious on the floor; she didn’t have any broken bones, but she was severely dehydrated and has major organ failure.
‘Her blood sugar levels are very low and when we spoke with her on Saturday, she seemed confused, and you could barely see her lips she was so dehydrated.
‘When they heard back that she was in hospital it was just horrible as we felt so helpless and so far away.’
Kat, as well their parents Karen and Nigel and sister Tara, are in the dark about the severity of Ashley’s condition.
However they are hoping to raise £50,000 for Ashley’s hospital treatment, which is so expensive because her health insurance recently expired.
The family say it costs £1,500 for her to stay in intensive care each day.
In just 24 hours medical costs have already burned through a £3,000 deposit.
Kat added: ‘It’s been very difficult, it’s been a shock for all of us, we all just want her home, she’s my baby sister and I want to give her the biggest cuddle and tell her that I love her.
‘I am also really worried about my parents; they have just retired, and this has the potential to financially ruin them.
‘My dad has already said they may have to sell their house, obviously the priority is Ashley, but they just don’t know how to cover the medical bills.
‘They don’t have an abundance of money, and they have just retired, and they had to pay £3,000 deposit which has been swallowed up in just the first day.
‘The thing is we just don’t know how long she could be in there for and then when she is fit to come out there is the cost of a flight home.
‘It’s the not knowing that is worrying and how long she may be in hospital for, we just hope that when dad gets out there, we can get some answers.’
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