Hi Forumites
This was suppose to be my JBR back on Sept 22, when my beautiful 20 year old Daughter Rhiannon & her best Friend Rebecca were to return from having our Annual Girls Bali Paradise Holiday. It has taken me until now to get the courage to write this, as you read on hopefully you will understand. We left Melbourne 8th Sept and was so excited as it was Bec's first ever oversea's holiday and to make it even more special her birthday fell within our holiday in Bali. I myself have been going to Bali for over 20 yrs and absolutely adore the place & people, it took us 2 years to convince Bec to come with us and she saved madly to get there. We booked to come home to Melb on 22nd, Bec unfortunately flew home no her home and me on the 30th September on an emergency flight out of Denpasar and my Beautiful Daughter Rhiannon on 1st October in an Air Ambulance due to a tragic accident. On the 19th Sept Rhiannon and I organised to take Rebecca on the Bali Sunset Cruise, this was our present to Bec, the cruise as always was entertaining and we all had a ball. We met some fantastic people on board and the girls meet a couple of really nice guys from Perth whose family were also celebrating a birthday on the cruise. After the cruise we all decided to catch up at Bali Beach Shack as the guys had never been there before. As usual Hulu was very funny and entertaining, after the show we dropped into Legends and I told the girls I was going to head off back to our hotel (Matahari Bungalows) as I was exhausted! The girls and guys decided they were going to go back to the Jayakarta where the guys and family were staying for a swim and a drink. We stayed at the Jayakarta the year before so I knew all was well and Rhiannon new a lot of the staff there so I felt comfortable letting them go. I had only been back at my hotel for probably an hour when the phone rang to be told by one of the guys that Rhiannon had had an accident and I should get to the Jayakarta immediately! Like we all do in Bali most nights we go for a swim! Rhiannon had dived off the side of the pool and hit the hump where the water goes from shallow to deep, in turn Rhiannon broke her neck and 3 vertabrae and is now classified as a C5 incomplete Quadraplegic with a spinal cord Injury.
I am not asking for sympathy as Rhiannon is a very strong and determined young girl who recently turned 21 in hospital, but what I am trying to say. Please be careful and be mindful of the decisions you make whilst on holidays. Rhiannon is my only child and we are best mates, to watch my daughter struggle for movement is heart wrenching. I would like to share with you the story of Rhiannon's injury to make people aware of what can happen in a blink of an eye and how it has changed our lives. I want to share with you what is was like to have an emergency operation to save Rhiannon's life and spinal cord in Sangla Hospital in Denpasar and I most of all I want you to be aware of how our beautiful friends in Bali suffer due to lack of Medical Education and their Health System. I want people to be aware of Travel Insurance and Insurance in general! I will do this in Parts as this is difficult for me, but you all need to know, unless this has happened to you, you can never understand but maybe it will save someone from injury or even death.