British woman who fell from KPN balcony goes home

The British woman who fell from a hotel balcony while on holiday on Koh Pha Ngan returned home to the UK after a successful fundraiser brought in £75,000 (3 million baht, US$100,000) in donations.

Maddi Neale-Shankster, 21, was on a three-week trip to Thailand with her partner when she fell from the second floor of her accommodation on New Year’s Eve.

The Coventry native has been paralysed from the waist down since the accident on New Year’s Eve. She suffered a broken back, broken ribs which pierced her liver and two collapsed lungs after she tripped over a “low wooden bannister rail” and fell 20 metres.

Her insurance company refused to pay the British woman’s bill so her family and friends managed to raise £75,000 to bring Neale-Shankster back from Thailand to continue her rehabilitation. The fundraiser is for “all hospital fees, repatriation and transportation costs back to the UK.”

Neale-Shankster’s mother, Karen Moseley-Neale flew to Thailand to be at her daughter’s hospital bedside. She explained that Neale-Shankster had bought the wrong travel insurance which covered only her medical expenses of 10,000 baht (US$300).

Her mother explained…

“She thought it was £10,000.”

At the time of the accident, Moseley-Neale said…

“The prognosis isn’t good as she has fractures to her spine and has needed drains to her chest to remove the blood and water which will be there for at least three days. There’s a chance she may never walk again.”

The family were looking to raise £73,500 to bring her home. After hitting the target, the family wrote on GoFundMe: “So today we wanted to make everyone aware that we have reached the target set and now have more than enough to cover all hospital fees, repatriation and transportation costs back to the UK. We have decided to turn off the donations for this reason.

“If you still wanted to help out directly there are several fundraisers taking place in Coventry which will go towards Maddi’s rehabilitation and help towards her living costs until she is hopefully able to walk and return to work.

“Once again we can not thank you all so very much for your generosity, we truly never expected this to happen so quickly and we are forever going to be eternally grateful.”