British gran fighting for life after catching Covid on holiday as family makes appeal

A dream holiday has turned into a nightmare for a family after a woman contracted which has left her bedbound.

After two years of saving, a British nan took off on her dream holiday to the US with her sons and grandson. However, Patricia Bunting, 76, has been left fighting for her life in critical care after catching the virus.

Currently in Orlando, Florida, Patricia is unresponsive and bedbound. Sadly, the pensioner could not afford the £3,000 travel insurance quoted prior to the trip, which has now left her uninsured in a country where medical bills can be expensive.

Her daughter, Emma, has now launched a campaign to raise a whopping £50,000.

This is the estimated cost of an air ambulance which can bring her mum home to Wigan in the UK where she can continue her recovery surrounded by family.

The trip to America was Patricia’s last chance to go abroad with her sons, but just days into the trip the nan was seen slumped over the bathtub of her hotel room, complaining of her lack of energy.

Emma told : “She’d been complaining the past few days that she had very little energy – that’s nothing out of the ordinary for my mum, so while she’d been in America, she was in a wheelchair so that she could still go to all her favourite destinations.

“But she went to the bathroom on Sunday evening, and was in there for quite a while. My brother went to the door and asked her if she was okay, and found her slumped over the bath.

“He panicked and went straight down to the reception and said ‘I need a doctor’. When the doctors came to assess her, they said ‘She needs an ambulance. We need to get her to the hospital’.”

The family believes Patricia’s best chance at a full recovery is at home in the UK, so that extended family can offer support. The family are now facing mounting medical bills after Emma’s mum’s five-day ICU stay.

Emma explained Patricia’s recent diagnosis with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and atrial fibrillation (AF), which means one of her heart muscles doesn’t pump as much as the other side of the heart.

Medical experts report that people with COPD puts those individuals at higher risk of getting seriously sick if infected with .

Emma continued explaining to the Mirror: “We are facing the impossible. Mum has always been there for us, and now we need to be there for her. Every donation, no matter the size, brings us closer to reuniting her with her family and giving her the care she needs.

“I don’t want to lose my mum. I’m not ready to lose my mum. I know that eventually she will pass, but I don’t want it to happen under these circumstances. I want to do everything I can.”