WARNING, DISTRESSING CONTENT: Ethan Lacey, 20, from Birmingham, was left fighting for his life in a Thailand hospital after a truck ran over his head in Pattaya
The mother of a British holidaymaker who was left battling for his life after a lorry ran over his head has revealed the heartbreaking choice to remove her son’s life support.
Ethan Lacey, 20, remains in a critical state following the shocking accident, after he tumbled from a moving pickup truck at a crossroads in Pattaya. His mum Kerry, 41, disclosed she only learned her son was hospitalised when a fellow traveller he had befriended sent her a picture of him lying in an intensive care unit.
She hadn’t heard from her son for two days, and a mate in Thailand had reported him missing to police before Ethan’s dad Kevin, 40, received the distressing photo via Facebook Messenger last Monday.
Kerry and Kevin instantly arranged flights and have stayed at his bedside ever since, reports Birmingham Live. After an alternative hospital with brain surgeons available initially agreed to treat him, medics requested a new CT scan and contrast scan of his body due to internal bleeding.
Following the results, the family were informed Ethan was not “going to get any better” and that his only chance of survival would leave him “bedridden”, with doctors telling them they could withdraw life support should they choose to do so.
At 1.45pm on May 27, Ethan’s life support was removed. He is currently breathing on his own and has been moved to a palliative care ward. The family are now tirelessly fundraising to bring him back to the UK. Witnesses report that when Ethan emerged from a car window, his head “went full force” onto the ground before the rear tyre rolled over his head and shoulder.
Kerry, hailing from Birmingham, shared: “While we’ve been at home while he was away, we’d been speaking to him every day or every other day. One time, his phone got broken, so he actually got in contact with someone else’s phone on Facebook.
“When it came to Friday, 15, that was the last we heard of him. On the Sunday, I thought, ‘that’s a bit strange’, so I WhatsApped him, and on WhatsApp it said he’s not been seen since Friday.
“On Monday around 5am a friend he’d met out there rang us through messenger screaming down the phone but she couldn’t speak English. I put down the phone and messaged and said ‘please tell me what’s going on’ and ‘please send a photo’, because I thought it might not be him. She sent a photo and it was him in hospital – me, his dad and his nan got a flight straight over there.”
Ethan had been journeying through Bangkok after arriving to visit a relative two months prior, before later travelling to Pattaya. Kerry asserts Ethan was last spotted at a nightclub before the incident on May 17.
She disclosed to Talk to the Press: “Witnesses said he was in a vehicle, some witnesses said he got thrown out of the window, some witnesses said he jumped out while it was moving and it went over his head. We’re not sure which way it happened.
“Witnesses said when he came out of the window, his head went full force on the ground, and the rear tyre drove over his head and shoulder, so one side of his whole body is broken.”
Ethan endured three brain haemorrhages and needed a drain to help treat a punctured lung. His father, Kevin, had initially found a second hospital willing to take on Ethan’s case, but they requested further scans after the family had been told he was suffering from internal bleeding.
“The other hospital phoned and said before he is moved, we need a new CT scan and contrast scan of the body because he had internal bleeding, but we’d been told that had stopped,” Kerry explains.
“They’d done the new CT scans and came back with the results – he wasn’t going to get any better or severely better, the only chance was he’d be bedridden, so the doctor said now we could turn off life support if we wanted to.”
The family is now fundraising to bring Ethan back to the UK. You can contribute to the family’s GoFundMe here.
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