A fundraising campaign to bring back an Australian police officer who was put into a medically induced coma after falling from a cliff in Croatia has raised more than half a million dollars.
Perth First Class Constable Ella Cutler, 25, was on the tail end of her European holiday when she tumbled over a waist-high wall at Pile in Dubrovnik in the early hours of August 26.
Officer Cutler was drinking with a man when she fell eleven meters, suffering horrific injuries including fractures to her spine, head, limbs and ribs.
She was rushed to a Croatian hospital in critical condition.
After her travel insurance claim was rejected – with her insurer, RAC, refusing to cover the bill because Ms Cutler had been drinking – her family was left with a $500,000 medical bill, including an air ambulance to take her home to Perth.
Perth First Class Constable Ella Cutler (pictured) was on the tail end of her European holiday when she tumbled over a waist-high wall at Pile in Dubrovnik in the early hours of August 26.
The 25-year-old (pictured) was taken to a hospital in Croatia in a critical condition after suffering serious injuries during the 11-metre fall, including fractures to her skull, spine, limbs, 12 broken ribs and punctured lungs.
a GoFundMe page, set up by her brother, reached its goal on Sunday morning after just six days.
Ms Cutler’s best friend and fellow officer Dani Morrison on Sunday thanked the WA Police Force, the wider Western Australian community and Australia for their donation to the ‘bring Ella home’ campaign.
“I would like to thank the wider WA community for giving back to a girl who has served the community herself for the past six years, which is so lovely to see people thanking her for that,” Constable Morrison told the Western Australia.
“And across Australia, and even overseas, there have been people who have donated, which is heartwarming to see that Ella’s story has really touched them.”
“They’ve never met her and they’ve still donated, so I just want to thank everyone because the number of donations has been amazing for her.”
Constable Morrison said she became best friends with Ms Cutler after meeting her on the job and described the young woman as a ‘compassionate, empathetic and caring person’.
“She’s selfless. Despite her age, she has been a mentor in her work, and outside of work she is a mother. She’s just a beautiful soul. She will do anything for anyone. She’s gentle, she’s kind, she’s a great girl,” Officer Morrison said.
She added that the situation for Ms Cutler’s family is ‘terrible’, with friends, family and colleagues ‘hurting’.
“I think everyone is so touched and devastated that such a terrible accident could happen to someone like Ella,” Officer Morrison said.
Ms Cutler’s best friend and fellow officer Dani Morrison (left) thanked WA Police, the Western Australian community and the rest of Australia for donating and helping to raise $500,000 to bring Ella home
Ms Cutler had been drinking with the 34-year-old man when the two leaned against a wall (pictured) shortly before they fell over
Constable Cutler has been transferred from intensive care but remains in critical condition.
Officer Morrison said Cutler, who was set to begin her detective training on Monday, has a “long road” to recovery with “a lot of surgeries she has to undergo.”
“She was told in the beginning that she wasn’t going to survive, so to overcome that, and then Ella has gotten better every day,” Officer Morrison said.
Constable Cutler is having surgery this week and the family hopes to bring her home as soon as possible.
Ms Cutler had kissed a 34-year-old man on a night out when the two leaned against a waist-high wall before falling over.
Mrs Cutler suffered a series of serious injuries in the fall, including fractures to her skull, spine, limbs, twelve broken ribs and punctured lungs.
She was taken to hospital in critical condition and placed in a coma. The man was treated for a broken leg and is recovering.
Nicole and Joshua Cutler, Constable Cutler’s mother and brother, landed in Croatia on Friday and are by her side during her recovery.
The policewoman’s mother said doctors gave her daughter a five percent chance of survival.
“When we heard the insurance company had let us down, we went into complete shock,” Ms Cutler told 7News.
‘I never expected that the insurance wouldn’t help us bring her home and I don’t understand it.
“I’m really confused as to how an insurance company could imagine that a family or someone who bought insurance in good faith could navigate through that.”
Constable Cutler has been transferred from intensive care but remains in critical condition. She is scheduled for further surgeries with family in hopes of bringing her home as soon as possible
Andrijana Biskup, from the Dubrovnik-Neretva police, confirmed that the couple were hugging or kissing when the fall occurred and said alcohol may have played a role.
The local hospital confirmed that blood alcohol tests showed the man had a reading of 0.2 – four times the legal driving limit in Australia – while the woman had a reading of 0.3, or six times the legal driving limit.
The couple were said to have been on a night out at the time of the accident in Dubrovnik’s Old Town, which is packed with tourists every summer.