Family appeal for help after accident leaves Carrick man with serious brain injury
David Heron was involved in a serious accident in Switzerland and his family need £24,000 to get him home.
Last updated 5th Sep 2018
A Northern Ireland electrician has suffered a serious brain injury after plunging from a bridge in Switzerland.
David Heron was involved in a serious accident in Zurich whilst attending an Electronic Dance Music Street Parade on 11th Aug 2018.
He was sitting on a wall and fell back 20ft onto a concrete path below, sustaining Brain Trauma, a punctured lung, fractures to his skull, spine, shoulder, collar bone and ribs.
His family are now trying to raise £24,000 to pay for an Air Ambulance to to get him home.
The 36-year-old, from outside Carrickfergus , Co Antrim, has had to have major surgery on his brain and spine and is currently in Intensive care in Solothurn Hospital, Switzerland.
Whilst he is making good progress in Switzerland, there is a language barrier, his brother Mark told Downtown/Cool FM.
Mark says the medical team strongly advise for his best chance of recovery, David needs to receive Brain Rehabilitation at home speaking his own language.
"While he is making good recover, he gets confused very easily. I've had the same conversation with him now for the past four days. He can't understand why I am not there and he is in Switzerland. He needs to come home and be with his family to make a full and speedy recovery.
"I can't fault the treatment he has received in Switzerland - it has been superb, and it’s been all paid for, but we’re now at the point where we have to get him home."
Mark told Downtown/Cool FM he didn't believe the news at first, and hoped they had made a mistake.
“It wasn’t until we saw a web article (see below) from a complete stranger that we knew what happened to David.
“The accident happen on 11th August and we didn’t find out the following Tuesday – I got a random message from his employer asking him to phone him and that’s how the news came about."
“You’re kind of in a situation where it doesn’t feel real - until you see him lying on the bed. He was in a coma when we arrived (in Switzerland) and we didn’t know what to think or do. We stayed with him for sometime and he opened his eyes for the first time and that gave us a lot of comfort. Now we just want him home so he can make a full recovery.”
The GoFundMe page has received over half of the £24,000 target - and Mark says the support they have received has blown them away.
“The fund doing really well – and between it and the savings we hope it won’t be too long now until David can come home and be with his family.
“That in itself is what’s kept us going – my mum and dad have felt that support too – the support from the local countryside here has been amazing – I can’t even put it into words just how much we appreciate it.”
If you want to find out more about the page click here.