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The family of a British holidaymaker has been
hit with a huge medical bill after he plunged from a balcony in Ibiza.
Ryan Elley of Portsmouth, Hampshire, suffered serious after he fell from his
apartment on the second floor of the Playa d'en Bossa hotel.
Now, the 20-year-old's family face a bill of £15,000 for his medical expenses
and repatriation back to the United Kingdom.
Ryan's father, Simon Elley said that thankfully, his condition had not
deteriorated. Speaking to Portsmouth News, he commented:
"Ryan has been heavily sedated and he is in a coma in intensive care.
"He will not be able to move anywhere for at least two weeks, but there
has been some good news because he has not got any worse."
Apart from the physical injury suffered when involved in an accident abroad,
patients and their families are left to bear the cost afterwards if they did
not buy an adequate holiday travel
insurance policy. As well as paying for medical care in hospitals and
clinic overseas, very often they will require a specialist repatriation
service, which includes the aid of a specially trained doctor to administer to
the needs to the patient during travel back to the UK.
Ryan's accident has brought the new holiday craze of 'balconing' into sharp
relief. The stunts, so named by the Spanish, involve leaping from hotel
balconies into swimming pools below to create the biggest splash of water possible.
Many video clips of holidaymakers jumping from third floor apartments have been
uploaded to video sharing website YouTube, and onlookers can be seen cheering
leapers as they plunge as far as 30ft, narrowly missing the edge of the
swimming pool.
The pursuit has reportedly claimed the lives of four men so far this summer,
and tourist authorities report that it has led to a further 30 accidents.
Spokesman for the Balearic Hotelier's
Association, Sebastian Darder, said:
"It's been shown that when all these cases happened, they were the result
of people having consumed too much alcohol or other substances"
Some hotels have taken to erecting screens to prevent holidaymakers from
leaping from their screens.
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