Roxanne Bolton, 39, was flung from a motorbike in a head-on collision and left with agonising injuries – her family are now desperately raising funds as she had no insurance
Roxanne is facing weeks away from home(Image: Supplied)
A British mum is trapped in India after being hurled from a motorbike in a “head-on collision” and left with excruciating injuries. Roxanne Bolton, 39, will require “several” operations before she can safely return home to the UK, Indian doctors say.
The mum-of-five, from Bude, Cornwall, was riding pillion with a friend when they rounded a bend and crashed directly into another motorcycle. “She was flung from the back seat into a ditch,” Roxanne’s daughter Aleisha Petherick said. “When she looked at her leg it was just completely mis-formed. She was in agony.”
Roxanne had been journeying through India and Thailand since January – something she had always dreamed of doing – but was rushed to hospital in the early hours of March 29 after sustaining severe injuries in the smash.
Her daughters received the frightening phone call informing them she had been in an accident, and are now frantically attempting to raise money for their mum, who was without insurance at the time, reports Cornwall Live.
Roxanne has already undergone one round of surgery, but doctors say she will need multiple additional procedures, with expenses anticipated to reach thousands. The mum was initially treated at a government hospital in Pondicherry before being moved to the local Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS). Aleisha revealed the hostel owner where her mum was staying kindly covered the initial expense of her treatment.
The family have now set up a GoFundMe page to raise the funds needed to reimburse him. “We’ve raised about £2,500 so far,” Aleisha said. “But the initial surgery is going to cost about £4,000. They’ve put pins into her hip because she’s got a fractured hip and her femur is completely snapped in two. She’s also got a metal cage around it, called an external fixator.
“She’s got that to keep the bone in place and she’s got to stay there for a month to recover from that. She’s then got at least three or four more surgeries to go after.”
The family is currently funding a private nurse to remain in hospital with Roxanne so she can assist with translation and help her understand her treatment. While Aleisha and her sisters desperately want to be with her, they say she’s being brilliantly cared for by the local community.
Aleisha, 20, said: “Mum was staying in Auroville, they are an amazing community and they have all come together to help and support her in any way they can. They have paid for some treatments when we can’t, they have made a group chat and organised a rota where they can put down when they are free to sit with mum so she’s never alone for a second.”
When questioned about her mum’s current condition, she added: “She’s in extreme pain at the moment but she’s coping really well for someone in extreme pain. She’s stressed not knowing when she’s going to come home and she’s stressed not being understood.
“It’s very hard on her emotionally as well, but she’s pushing through it, which is really amazing.”
