A Clydebank man who has fallen ill with a serious infection in Cambodia risks losing his lung if he cannot raise the funds for treatment.
Anthony Igoe, 31, is a teacher in Cambodia, and was rushed to hospital with a serious infection in his lungs.
However, he has been told that he will need to pay £20,000 for the antibiotics to treat the condition, or his infected lung will be removed.
Now, a desperate appeal has been launched by his family to raise the vital money, reports the Daily Record.
The GoFundMe page is begging for help from the public and can be viewed here.
Anthony's dad Jerry, 66, said: "My guts are in knots. I wake up in the middle of the night and it feels as if I have been eating a ton of ice.
"I have no real words to say how it feels to have a son in hospital and be unable to get to him. His sister Andrea is in Australia and she is doing what she can from there to help too."
Anthony's girlfriend, Alana Fonseca, 28, has not left his hospital bedside since he fell ill, and has begged people "please help us".
She said that if it were possible, she would have brought him home to Scotland, but due to the severity of his illness, he is not able to fly.
Alana said: "If I could, I would have brought him home to Scotland but he is not allowed to fly. We have literally been told the doctors at the public hospital will have to remove Anthony’s lung because the drugs he needs are too expensive if we can’t pay for them."
Anthony picked up two bacterial infections in Cambodia.
His insurance firm, Cigna, are refusing to pay for his treatment because they say he was already suffering from the lung condition when he took out a policy in February.
The first indication Anthony was ill was in January when he started coughing and getting chest pains. He was given antibiotics by doctors in Cambodia.
In March, Anthony began to feel poorly again – and his health has gone downhill due to the lung infection.
Alana said: “He was warm to the touch and one day in school he lay down on the floor and said, ‘I can’t do this.’ It was the first indication he was so sick.
“He just got worse and his fever wasn’t going away. The last week in April he was really bad. He had lost 20 kilos in a month.”
Alana took him to hospital where he was taken to intensive care.
She said: “This is when we realised things were really bad. I feel so guilty I didn’t get him to hospital before.”
After tests, it was found he’d picked up two bacteria. One has led to an abscess in his lung – causing permanent damage – while the other led to pneumonia.
Alana added: “He needs to be in hospital for at least another week on very strong intravenous antibiotics and then he will need between eight months of strong oral antibiotics as well as X-rays.
“We both feel so very alone here. No one can travel to us and we have no family out here.”
Alana has set up a GoFundMe page which has already raised more than half of the money but they desperately need the rest to ensure Anthony’s treatment continues.
A Cigna spokesperson said: “We will always do everything we can to best address our customers’ needs.
"The enquiry is being addressed internally and an update will be shared with the concerned individual shortly.
"We hope you will understand that to protect the privacy of all our customers, we cannot enter into any public discussion about an individual’s policy or personal situation, under any circumstances. Thank you for your understanding.”
