Featured Image Credit: GoFundMe
Topics: Money, Travel, UK News, World News, Health
Olivia Burke
A Brit tourist has been left stranded in hospital thousands of miles from home after being swept out to sea by a freak wave.
Charline Edwards' last minute holiday to Cape Verde with her boyfriend, Callum Aston, 28, ended in horror after a day at the beach only three days before they were due to fly home.
The 24-year-old, from Sutton Coldfield, was taking a dip in the water with her partner when she was suddenly dragged out to sea by a 'very big' wave on November 16.
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She has been left with an 'excruciating' nerve injury to her spine and is unable to feel her arms or hands - but doesn't even know the full extent of her injuries yet.
The couple remain stuck in Cape Verde and have been told they need to fork out £38,000 to fly Charline back to the UK where she can be thoroughly assessed by medics.
They took the holiday from a colleague at short notice and forgot to arrange travel insurance - and they have already been slapped with a £10,000 hospital bill, which is only expected to climb as they remain stuck there.
Callum's mum Julie, who has organised a Go Fund Me to help raise the cash to get her home, and says both the British Embassy and the holiday booking firm have 'refused to help', fearing Charline 'could end up paralysed if not treated soon'.
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She is currently receiving care in a local hospital, which her boyfriend has described as 'abysmal', but there are no MRI scanners there to assess the severity of her nerve damage.
Callum told Birmingham Live: "The water was a little choppy but nothing too serious. The flags were green, telling us it was safe to swim.
"We were less than waist-deep in the water, Charline was lying on her back floating in the water relaxing. Suddenly a very big wave landed on top of her.
"When I eventually stood up myself from the wave, she was nowhere to be seen. She was about 20 yards down into the water, where it had dragged her back out to sea, when I managed to find her."
The sales manager had to 'swim against the current to drag' an injured Charline back to shore, before a couple helped him pull her to dry land.
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He continued: "Eventually, after about five minutes, the lifeguards came over but at that time, she couldn't move anything from her neck down.
"But the lifeguards were trying to drag her by her arms and legs up the beach. I said: 'You can't do that, she's hurt her back, it's going to cause more damage'.
"I was begging for help, asking them to call an ambulance. It took them more than 30 minutes for them to call an ambulance and over two hours for paramedics to arrive on the beach."
Callum went on to claim that he has been forced to lift his partner 'in and out of a CT scanner because there was no staff available to help'.
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He alleged that doctors had 'intentionally kicked' her bedside and squeezed her arm to see if she was in pain.
The Brit added: "She's been left in her own urine for two days because doctors won't change the sheets.
"The entire time I've been there fully feeding her, trying to wash her, clothe her, change her, making sure she constantly has painkillers, she's been given no support by the doctors at all.
"We've had a really bad experience in the hospital. We're worried that, if we can't get her home, her injury could become long-term because there's no MRI scanner on the island so we can't see how extensive the nerve damage is."
Currently, over £9,000 has been donated to the fundraiser which hopes to hit a £45,000 target.