Family faces hospital bills of £8,000 a DAY after uninsured British tourist, 32, falls into mysterious coma in Cambodia: parents fly away and ‘have already paid out more than £60,000’

A British tourist is in a coma and fighting for his life after collapsing in a hostel in Cambodia.

Ben Wilkins, 32, from Chinley in Derbyshire, had only been on holiday to the island of Koh Rong for two weeks when he fell ill.

He was found unconscious in his room by friends last Monday before being rushed to a hospital in Siem Reap and then transferred to the capital Phnom Penh.

Ben’s sister Imogen said he had ‘kidney failure and severe pneumonia’ and is now in a coma with a ventilator supporting his breathing. He hasn’t woken up in five days.

The family now face bills of £8,000 a day for intensive care in notoriously poor third world hospitals – or an air ambulance back to Britain for up to £200,000.

Imogen, from Manchester, said: ‘We don’t know how long Ben had been unconscious in his room.

“The ambulance ride that took five and a half hours from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh was to enable him to undergo dialysis, as without it he would have died.

“Treatments like dialysis are not available in most of the country.”

Imogen said the previously healthy young man had no underlying health conditions and had not taken out travel insurance, having traveled to the country several times without any problems.

He even adopted two dogs from the island before flying them back to Britain with his girlfriend.

Ben’s mother, father and stepfather have all now flown to Cambodia to be by his side.

Imogen added: “When you’re young you think you’re invincible, so all of this is not only a heartbreaking strain on all of us but also comes at a huge financial cost to our family.

‘It costs £8,000 a day to stay in intensive care, before the costs of ambulances, medicines, procedures, dialysis and tests.

‘We have spent more than £60,000 and every day the amount is growing enormously.’

In an effort to control the rising costs of Ben’s care, Imogen and her mother Carolyn launched a Go Fund Me page to request donations.

‘Please help us save Ben, anything you can spare to help with the costs of the medical bills to try and save his life and bring him back home would be greatly appreciated.

‘I need my brother and my parents need their son at home.

‘He’s on the other side of the world and he needs to get back home.

‘Thank you so much.’

The fundraiser had raised £36,000 by Tuesday morning.

An update posted to the Go Fund Me page this morning suggested Ben had begun to respond to treatment despite being in a coma.

‘A huge thank you to everyone who donated. We are so overwhelmed by the response and kindness shown,” Imogen wrote.

‘Ben is definitely starting to respond to his treatments in the last 24 hours, which is great news. He is still on a ventilator and receiving dialysis for his kidney failure and his pneumonia is still severe.

‘But there is positive news and he is responding to the treatments.’

Cambodia was once home to one of the world’s largest empires and its capital was the ‘Pearl of the Orient’ in the 1950s, but the country is now one of Asia’s most underdeveloped countries.

It was decimated by US bombing in the 1970s, followed by the twisted rule of the genocidal Khmer Rouge, which was supported by neighboring Thailand.

The infrastructure has never been fully restored and the hospitals are notoriously poor.