This was when all contact with her family ceased, and Nic described the panic of phoning around friends, and places she had visited and stayed in Goa for any kind of steer on where she was and what had happened.
He found the hostel where Olivia had been staying in the Arambol area, and the owner was able to establish she had been in an accident and taken to a south Goa hospital just after midnight on 5 May.
Nic rang around fearful of what information he would receive, before finding the place where Olivia was being treated.
“They said she was in a coma, and put me through to the ITU [intensive care] ward. Olivia had been in a coma and treated there for 36 hours,” he added.
“She was starting to regain consciousness before falling back into a coma again. She had a bleed on her brain measuring 3.6mm – that was the scary bit.
“They told me if that didn’t dissolve, they’d have to drill into her skull, and they’d make that call in two days.”
Nic and Olivia’s sister Beatrice, 19, flew out to India on the earliest possible flight, but were unsure about what state they would find her in.
Luckily, medication had reduced the bleed, and there was no need for brain surgery.
“When we got there on the Saturday, four days after, she didn’t know her own name,” her dad said.
“But she recognised us, and we had a very tearful cuddle for a very long time.”
