Friends of an Australian tourist who rushed to hospital with a mysterious stab wound while on holiday in Fiji have issued an urgent appeal for help as he fights for his life.
Clayton Brett was due to fly home from a holiday in Fiji on May 1, but instead of boarding the plane he was taken to a hospital with a stab wound to his stomach.
The 43-year-old soon became extremely unwell, with the wound becoming infected and leading to septic shock.
The infection was so serious that he was put into an induced coma in the intensive care unit of the hospital in Nadi.
Mr Brett’s sudden silence left his family concerned as his parents, stepbrother and cousin desperately tried to track him down.
His stepbrother Matthew Davis said Mr Brett did not come home at the appointed time and did not answer phone calls.
Clayton Brett is in hospital in Fiji
Desperate, the family began calling hospitals in Fiji.
“We had a bad feeling something was going on so we called the hospitals to see if he happened to be in one of the hospitals,” Mr Davis said.
“They got the news that he was there and that he had a stab wound to the stomach.”
As soon as they heard the news, Mr Brett’s father Terry and stepmother Jenny Davis were on the next flight to Fiji to be by his side.
When they arrived, they were told that Mr Brett would need to remain in intensive care for 24-hour treatment.
Septic shock is a life-threatening condition that can lead to dangerously low blood pressure and organ failure.
Mr Brett now needs dialysis because his kidneys are failing, but the hospital in Nadi does not have a functioning dialysis machine.
His parents have now had to make the crucial decision to fly Mr Brett back to Australia to receive the necessary interventions via medevac.
Clayton Brett is in hospital in Fiji
Mr Davis said Mr Brett’s parents had managed to scrape together $140,000 and pay for medical aid to fly him back to Melbourne for treatment.
“We had to find the money and pay it up front for it to go ahead,” Mr Davis said.
He now hopes that his stepbrother makes the flight home and that no side effects occur during transport.
He said: ‘Hopefully the flight goes well, we don’t know how he’s going to react in the air.’
While there are concerns about Mr Brett, his stepbrother said there are also serious concerns about the welfare of his parents.
Mr Davis has set up a GoFundMe to ease financial strain in what he describes as an “already stressful situation”.
“The money raised will relieve some of Terry and Jenny’s financial pressure and stress and help pay for international hospital costs and medical repatriation flight costs,” the fundraiser said.
Mr Brett is expected to land in Melbourne sometime on Friday.