The family of a British man has desperately appealed for funds after he suffered a freak fall while using gym equipment in Turkey, leaving him fighting for his life.
Marlon McCormack, 51, suffered a brain hemorrhage and is currently in an induced coma while his family seeks donations through GoFundMe to help urgently raise funds to pay his medical bills at the hospital in Türkiye.
His daughter, Renelle McCormack, 27, was taking family photos with her younger sister, father and his girlfriend just the night before and last Thursday woke up to the terrible news that her father was having a stroke.
He has since had to undergo surgery “because 50 percent of his brain is bleeding,” according to his daughter Renelle, and now needs a second operation.
She told MailOnline: ‘He went to sleep and hasn’t woken up since. Our entire lives were turned upside down overnight.
The family have been asked to fork out £24,000 for the first surgery and £1,500 for each day Marlon has to stay in ICU as they have no travel insurance, and with the father-of-two now needing another surgery, the hospital The bills are piling up.
Marlon McCormack, 51, suffered a brain hemorrhage and is currently in an induced coma. He is pictured the night before he became ill with his daughter Renelle (right) and his 16-year-old sister (left).
Marlon (left) said he fell while at the gym during a holiday in Turkey, before losing feeling in his body.
“He has been in a coma for seven days and needs another brain surgery in a week, followed by four weeks of recovery in ICU, which will cost around £80,000 in total,” Renelle said.
He added that the family were looking into the possibility of medical repatriation, either by plane or boat, to take Marlon back to the UK, which could cost them another £40,000.
Despite having already raised almost £23,000, this only covers the first surgery and not Marlon’s hospital stay, let alone the second surgery and repatriation.
Renelle said, “Now we’re back to square one.” [with the fundraiser]because we’re already going to have to pay the hospital £19,000 for his first brain surgery.
‘I’ve heard that [the hospital] We won’t let it die if we can’t afford it, but I don’t know if they’ll want half up front, but we need to raise the funds.
“Regardless of whether it is the money for your return home or the operation, we will have to come up with some money, because the medical repatriation company will not travel without cash in advance.”
In addition to the financial worries weighing on the family, Renelle said she was also thinking about what might happen if her father dies.
‘My 16-year-old sister’s mother has already passed away. My dad is all he has, so if he dies, my sister would be an orphan. She has no one, the only thing she will have left will be me. So that would leave me in a position where I would be her caregiver. “It’s a lot,” Renelle said.
Anna Ryan (R) said she had raised the £3,000 down payment for Marlon’s (CR) treatment, but the family are now crowdfunding to support the hospital asking for tens of thousands.
He added: ‘My father’s girlfriend is now in Turkey, alone, in a foreign country, and her boyfriend is asleep. So even though she is with him, she is alone.
Marlon’s girlfriend, Anna Ryan, 41, was with the 51-year-old man the day he was rushed to hospital.
“Marlon got up early to go to the gym,” he said. BirminghamLive one day after the strange accident. “He came back and said she had fallen while he was there.
“He went back to sleep and when he woke up he couldn’t stand up; it looked like he’d had a stroke.” We called an ambulance and they rushed him to the hospital.
The Chelmsley Wood forklift operator had planned a “last minute” getaway with his family, leaving for Turkey on April 24.
Anna said she slept in the next morning while Marlon got up early to go to the gym.
Renelle McCormack, 27, was taking family photos with her younger sister, father and girlfriend the night before.
When Marlon returned and was rushed to the hospital, Anna was told that her fiancé’s treatment would continue without payment, but that the money would need to be found.
“Due to the language barrier we believed it was a success, however they were unable to remove all of the mass from his brain due to the brain hemorrhage and he remains in critical condition,” GoFundMe organizer Cherry Ryan wrote in April. 25.
He said Marlon had been placed in an induced coma in intensive care while the family remained “by his side”.
He said the cost of the surgery would be £24,000 plus £1,500 a day of care for four weeks of recovery.
They previously said the hospital had demanded £25,000 upfront for treatment.
Anna said: ‘They’re asking me to pay a lot of money I don’t have. They want £24,000 for the surgery and then it’s four weeks of recovery which we would also need to fund. We don’t have that kind of money; I don’t know what to do.
‘That have never happened to me. We need all the help we can get.’
