Baby ‘trapped overseas and dying’ after airways refuse to fly sick tot again to UK
Matthew Lee, a nine-month-old baby from Nottinghamshire, fell severely ill and almost died three time while on a trip to Hong Kong with his mum
A charity is fighting to bring baby Matthew home (Image: Family Handout)
A charity is desperately appealing for help in transporting a critically ill nine-month-old baby back to the UK. Matthew Lee, from Nottinghamshire, had travelled to Hong Kong with his mum as part of a family visit several months ago.
The tiny tot is lucky to be alive after he developed a deadly form of influenza and suffered three cardiac arrests which saw his brain deprived of oxygen for 48 minutes during the trip. Matthew’s mum Sophia is desperate to bring her son back to the UK for urgent medical care.
However, travel insurers are reportedly refusing to cover the cost while commercial airlines have said that the journey would be too risky. Charity Lia’s Wings, which works tirelessly to transport sick and injured kids so they can receive the best possible treatment at home, have stepped in to try and help Matthew
Baby Matthew suffered three cardiac arrests after developing influenza(Image: Family Handout)
But they say the £250,000 cost to fly Matthew home is outside their current budget. Instead, the charity is calling on someone from the aviation industry to donate a private jet, which could massively decrease the price.
In a statement, Lia’s Wings said: “You may have seen in the news that we’re currently supporting Matthew, a little boy who became critically ill while visiting family in Hong Kong.
Matthew is currently in critical condition in Hong Kong (Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
“Sadly, his travel insurer won’t cover the cost of his journey home, and commercial airlines have deemed him too high-risk to fly. An air ambulance would be an option, but the cost is simply beyond what our small charity and his family can afford.
We’re now exploring what may be our last option: reaching out to the aviation industry in the hope that someone might be able to donate a private aircraft and help bring Matthew home safely.”
Charlotte Young, the chief operating officer of Lia’s Wings, told the Metro: “They are a British family who went on a holiday. It was an influenza infection, it wasn’t a wild accident.
Commercial airlines have reportedly said a flight back would be too risky (stock)(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
“Very quickly their lives changed – they left with a healthy nine-month-old and are coming back with a critically ill one-year-old. They have not done anything crazy and have walked a path a lot of people do.
“There is really no other option than the private ambulance flight. We don’t ask unless it is life or death. Unless Matthew is moved to the UK, ‘medical decline would happen over a period of time,’ she said.
Without the repatriation, he risks becoming ‘a tragedy, a British baby left somewhere where he wasn’t within the reach of help of the community where he belongs to.”
