The boyfriend of an Irish woman who suffered a near fatal blood clot while teaching in Dubai has thanked the public for supporting a campaign to bring her home.
Aisling Brady (26), a physics and maths teacher from Trim, Co Meath, suffered a pulmonary embolism late last month.
A gofundit appeal was set up by her boyfriend Kristian Mansfield on Wednesday with a target of raising €80,000.
Mr Mansfield said he had hoped the appeal might make €30,000 which would be enough to get Ms Brady home. However, the appeal has now raised more than three times that figure in two days.
Mr Mansfield described the response to the appeal as “amazing” and “crazy” and he said the bulk of the 2,000 people who contributed to the appeal were strangers.
Ms Brady fell ill when a clot which started in her leg moved up to her heart and eventually ended up being caught in her lungs.
She fainted while teaching on November 27th. Ms Brady then suffered three seizures in an ambulance. This was followed by three cardiac arrests while in hospital. Her condition was then further complicated by a stroke caused by a series of smaller clots to the brain.
She had a tracheotomy on Wednesday and on Friday morning she was taken off sedation completely.
All her vital organs are working perfectly and she is breathing normally. However, doctors have yet to determine how much damage the blood clot has done.
‘Out of the blue’
Mr Mansfield said the clot came “out of the blue” as Ms Brady is a sporty person who plays rugby and trains a minimum of three times a week.
However, doctors have discovered since her collapse that she has a blood type that is prone to clotting and was especially vulnerable having done a lot of long-distance flying in the last year.
“Now it is a waiting game for the doctors on Sunday and Monday to assess the damage to the conscious side of her brain,” he said.
“Can she talk? Can she move? Will she be able to walk? We will have an understanding of her rehab over the next year or two. Every extra penny will go into her rehabilitation. We are going to keep it going.”
The medical insurance provided by her school does not cover her emergency medical evacuation to Ireland or rehabilitation at home.
Mr Mansfield said he met Ms Brady in Swindon in June 2015 when she was visiting a friend there.
"We did long distance for a year. We literally flew via Ryanair from Bristol to Dublin every second weekend. She did most of the flying because I was playing hockey."
The pair moved to Dubai a year later.
The immediate priority will be to fund the cost of an air ambulance capable of flying her home from the Middle East.
Mr Mansfield described Aisling as “resilient, driven, stubborn and tenacious and she will not settle for anything less than getting her life back up to speed.
“With the right help and support, there is every hope we can together get her back to her loving and caring self. She has left huge footprints in the world, on our lives, let’s make sure she can keep doing that.”
Donations can be made and more information can be found at: https://www.gofundme.com/bring-aisling-home
