A BRIT tourist is fighting for his life after falling into a coma in Cambodia, with his family now facing a £8,000-a-day hospital bill.
Ben Wilkins, 32, from Chinley, Derbyshire, was just two weeks into his holiday to the island of Koh Rong when he fell sick.
Pals found him unconscious in his hostel room last Monday before rushing him to a hospital in Siem Reap.
The uninsured Brit was later transferred to Cambodian capital Phnom Penh.
His family are now facing bills of £8,000 a day for intensive care in the notoriously poor hospital or an air ambulance back to the UK for up to £200,000.
Ben’s sister Imogen said he had “kidney failure and severe pneumonia” and is now in a coma with a ventilator supporting his breathing.
He has not woken up in five days.
“We do not know how long Ben had been unconscious in his room on his own,” said mum-of-one Imogen, from Manchester.
“The ambulance ride which took five and a half hours from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh was to enable him to receive dialysis as he would have died without this, most of the country does not have treatments available such as dialysis.”
Imogen added the previously healthy young man had no underlying health conditions.
Ben also did not take out travel insurance as he had travelled to the country several times before without problems.
He even adopted two dogs from the island before flying them back to the UK with his girlfriend.
Ben’s mother, father and stepfather have now all flown out to Cambodia to be by his side.
“When you’re young you think you’re invincible, so all of this is not just a heart-breaking strain on us all but is coming at a huge financial cost to our family,” Imogen said.
“It’s £8000 a day to be kept in ICU, before the costs of ambulances, medication, procedures, dialysis and tests being done.
“We have spent upwards of £60,000, with every day the amount growing massively.”
Imogen and her mother Carolyn have set up a Go Fund Me page to raise funds to help with Ben’s mounting medical expenses.
She wrote: “Please help us save Ben, anything you can spare to help towards the cost of the medical bills to try and save his life and bring him back home would be greatly appreciated.
“I need my brother and my parents need their son home.
“He is halfway around the world and he needs to be back home.
“Thank you so much.”
The campaign has raised £36,000 as of Tuesday morning.
An update given on the Go Fund Me website this morning said that Ben has begun to respond to therapy but remains in a coma.
Imogen wrote: “Such a massive thank you to everyone who has donated. We are so overwhelmed by the response and kindness shown.
“Ben is definitely starting to respond to his treatments in the last 24 hours, which is great news. He’s still on a ventilator and receiving dialysis for his kidney failure and his pneumonia is still severe.
“But there is positive news and he is responding to the treatments.”
Cambodia was once home to one of the world’s greatest Empires and the capital was the ‘Pearl of the Orient’ in the 1950s but the country is now one of the most underdeveloped in Asia.
It was decimated by US bombing campaigns in the 1970s – Nixon’s Mad Man strategy to intimidate Vietnam – followed by the twisted reign of the genocidal Khmer Rouge, which was supported by neighbour Thailand.
Its infrastructure has never fully recovered, with its hospitals holding a notoriously poor reputation.
