A grandmother who was hoping for a holiday in Corfu with her granddaughter and close friend has been stuck in hospital for more than a fortnight.
68-year-old Barbara Wilkinson was flying from East Midlands Airport with her close friend Carol and granddaughter Tamara, 13, on October 14 when she fell ill.
Not long after the plane took off she started coughing and fell into a ‘comatose’ state.
The plane made an emergency landing in Croatia where Barbara was whisked to hospital by ambulance – and she’s been stuck in the country thousands of miles from home ever since.
At first it was suspected the former singer and entertainer had suffered a stroke, and she was placed into the recovery position in the aisle of the plane until it landed.
But following a CT scan at Zadar General Hospital it was discovered she had suffered a ‘life-threatening’ brain aneurysm.
She was then transferred to University Hospital Centre Zagreb for emergency surgery, where Barbara remains in a coma.
Her travel insurance doesn’t cover the cost of flying her back to the UK, so her granddaughter Destiny Jordan is trying to raise the £35,000 needed to fly her beloved gran back home.
Destiny, a customer service advisor from Aspley in Nottingham, told MailOnline: ‘She had a flight in the morning and got to the airport fine and was with my sister and one of her close friends.
‘She got on the flight fine and then she just took a nap on the plane.
‘[At some point on the flight] my sister gave her a sweet and she started coughing.
‘They thought she might have been choking on a sweet at first. When my sister looked over to her she was coughing with her eyes open and they got a bit worried.
‘She then went back to sleep and then woke up and started coughing with her eyes open again.
‘She went back to sleep a third time but then my sister tried to wake her up and she wouldn’t wake up.
‘At first, they thought it was a stroke. The flight attendant must have spoken to the pilot and that is when they let everyone know that the plane was going to make an emergency landing in Croatia.
‘When they landed she was taken straight in an ambulance to hospital.
‘They found out it was a ruptured aneurysm and it was a severe one and counted as life-threatening.
‘She then needed emergency surgery and she was moved to another hospital.
‘I was at work at the time when I found out about my grandma. I had a panic attack and was in tears straight away. I just wanted to get my grandma home and I did worry that she was going to die.
‘We only assume that it was an aneurysm that was already there and then the pressure in the cabin made this rupture.’
After undergoing emergency surgery, they tried to bring Barbara out of her coma which was successful at first.
But as she struggled to breathe on her own, doctors had to perform a tracheostomy and put her back under sedation.
Destiny said her grandma’s insurance will not pay to fly her home to the UK as she ‘forgot’ to declare all the medications she was taking.
Once her gran wakes up, doctors have said she could be left with severe disabilities from the aneurysm and require 24-hour care – a huge potential struggle for Barbara who loves to travel and spend time with her friends and family.
Destiny added: ‘It was terrible when we found out we would have to try and get her home on our own.
‘[Her insurance doesn’t cover her], all because she forgot to mention a couple of medications on her form.
‘They have told me that she could be left with severe disabilities and need round-the-clock care.
‘This is really scary and I know she wouldn’t want to live like this.
‘It would mean the absolute world to have her home for the whole family.
‘She means the world to us and she is the most amazing grandma in the world and raised me.’
