A Brit left unable to recognise his own mum when a mosquito bite turned out to be a deadly ‘brain swelling’ disease now faces £50,000 in bills – as his insurance expired days earlier.
Andrew Court was visiting his pal Zeke Scott in Bali ahead of starting a new job when he fell ill with a fever and started being sick last month.
Shrugging it off as dengue fever, a tropical disease spread by infected mosquitoes, the business supplier rested in the hope he would soon recover.
But three days after falling ill, Andrew’s friend Zeke was horrified to discover he suffered multiple seizures and he was rushed to hospital.
There, doctors ran a series of tests and gave a ‘devastating’ diagnosis of pneumonia and viral encephalitis, which causes swelling in the brain – while tests for dengue fever were negative.
Andrew’s family and Zeke, who all rushed to be at his bedside, are in the dark as to what triggered the deadly condition.
Zeke, 40, said Andrew is in a ‘blank state’ and apart from briefly recognising his mum a fortnight ago, he’s still unaware of who anyone is.
Andrew’s health insurance had expired just a week before the seizures and Zeke said he was due to renew it once he started a new job in February.
Andrew Court pictured with his mother Irene Court. The British man became stranded in Bali after falling ill with Encephalitis just days after his insurance expired
Encephalitis is a serious condition which causes swelling of the brain. But doctors are unaware of what caused Andrew’s illness
Andrew is reportedly disorientated, and was left unable to recognise his mother after she flew to Bali to be by his side
The family has now set up a GoFundMe to fly him back home to Buxton, Derbyshire, which will cost around £30,000, while each night in the ICU is costing the Brit around $1,000.
Setting up the fundraiser, his family wrote: ‘Andrew is beloved by many and is larger than life. He’s also extremely proud and modest; while he’ll be eternally grateful for all of your love and support, we suspect he’ll also be overwhelmingly humbled.
‘Our wish is to give Andrew the treatment required to enable him to be home as soon as possible. Any assistance in this will be greatly appreciated’.
The family has already raised £32,500 of the £50,000 target.
Zeke, from Pererenan, Bali, Indonesia, said: ‘The only thing that is confirmed is that he has viral encephalitis and pneumonia.
‘He had a bit of fever in the night for a few nights, was a little bit nauseous and threw up.
‘We originally thought it was dengue, which is a mosquito-borne virus, which would result in a very extreme case like the viral encephalitis but the test came back negative.
‘They’re testing him constantly, they’re focusing on dealing with the encephalitis because of the brain swelling.
Andrew’s family has now set up a GoFundMe to bring the Brit home to Buxton in Derbyshire. So far, they have raised around £32,500 of a £50,000 target
‘He recognised his mum last week on Thursday and gave her a big hug, but not long after he was unaware of who [anyone] was and went to a blank state.
‘He goes through phases of being present and there are a lot of times when he’s not present.
‘He had an MRI and they’re still trying to determine if it’s swelling of the brain or damage. It’s a different level of medical care unfortunately.
‘Last week we were all exhausted and confused, when I heard of him not recognising his mum we all bawled our eyes out. It was a very big step backwards for us.
‘He is having treatment that should stop the infection but he is still not present.
‘He’s on every medication under the sun at the moment.’
Gym-loving Andrew, from Buxton, East Midlands, was visiting Zeke in Bali and about to take up a job on a neighbouring island.
The engineer and constructor said that Andrew’s insurance had expired just a week before the seizures and he was going to renew it once he started his new job in February.
Zeke said: ‘All that we know is that he had been a bit light-headed in the days before that and in the night.
‘He was supposed to be starting a new job in February for a UK company and working on an island near Bali.
‘His insurance expired about a week before he got sick, it was really bad timing.’
Andrew’s brother Stewart Court hasn’t flown out to visit him in hospital for fear of ‘stressing him out’ if he doesn’t recognise him.
The 34-year-old said the family is taking it ‘day by day’ and will make decisions based on his progress.
Andrew’s ordeal comes weeks after Dean Penson (pictured) died after falling ill in the Thai island of Phuket. While he was flown back to the UK to receive treatment, he passed away last month in hospital
Stewart said: ‘I was shocked, dismayed, it’s very, very hard. It’s devastating to know he is in there, with me over the other side of the water.
‘At the moment we’re just taking it day by day. It’s a condition when we don’t want to overly stress him out.
‘He has his mum and dad out there and is still trying to remember things but we need to remind him every day where he is and why he’s there.
‘I haven’t even had a chat or a video call because it may stress him out not knowing who I am at that moment so we’re taking it day by day. We’re devastated.’
Stewart said: ‘I’ve been massively appreciative for what people have done and its blown my mind what they’ve been able to donate.
‘It’s also a testament to how many people out there love him, including from friends that he went to high school that donated £1,000.
Andrew’s ordeal comes just weeks after a British man who was stranded in a ‘hell hole’ Thai hospital after falling ill on holiday died after a fundraiser helped to pay for his return.
Dean Penson, 41, became unwell on the island of Phuket, on the southern tip of the country, in November and was rushed to hospital for blood and platelet transfusions, with medics fearing that he had leukaemia.
Alongside his terrifying prognosis, the labourer faced ‘horrific’ conditions at the local government-run Vachira Phuket Hospital as he didn’t get insurance for the holiday he was taking with his friends.
Doctors then discovered that Dean had an extremely low blood count, which meant that he had to undergo around 20 transfusions over the next ten days.
Friends said the infirmary had puddles of blood on the floor, needles strewn across the ground and people dying just feet away from him each day.
Dean’s friend Ben Page organised a fundraiser to pay for his treatment abroad and to get him home.
He was ultimately flown back to the UK, where he was admitted Southend Hospital in Essex, near where he lived, on November 30, but he passed away at the hospital last month.
