A Brit is in a coma fighting for his life after collapsing in a hostel in Cambodia.
Ben Wilkins was found unconscious in his room by pals and was rushed to hospital, where his care, family says, will cost around £8,000 a day.
The 32-year-old man, from Chinley, Derbyshire, has "kidney failure and severe pneumonia" and has been in a coma for five days. A ventilator is supporting his breathing in the intensive care unit at the hospital in Phnom Penh, Cambodia's busy capital.
An air ambulance back to the UK would cost Ben and his family £200,000, the man's sister, Imogen, said. The mum of one added: "We do not know how long Ben had been unconscious in his room on his own.
"The ambulance ride which took five and a half hours from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh was to enable him to receive dialysis as he would have died without this, most of the country does not have treatments available such as dialysis."
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Ben, who has no underlying health conditions, fell ill two weeks into his holiday in Cambodia, once home to one of the world's greatest Empires and a capital which was the "Pearl of the Orient" in the 1950s. However, Ben didn't take out travel insurance before he left the UK, because he had been to country several times before without problems. He even adopted two dogs from the island before flying them back to the UK with his girlfiend.
The 32-year-old man, of Derbyshire, was found unconscious in his hostel (ViralPress)Imogen, who lives in Manchester, added: "When you're young you think you're invincible, so all of this is not just a heart-breaking strain on us all but is coming at a huge financial cost to our family.
"It's £8000 a day to be kept in ICU, before the costs of ambulances, medication, procedures, dialysis and tests being done. We have spent upwards of £60,000, with every day the amount growing massively."
Ben, pictured with his mother, is thought to be responding well to treatment
Imogen, Ben's sister, is leading the campaign to fundraise to cover financial costs of Ben's care (ViralPress)Ben's mother, father and stepfather have now all flown out to Cambodia to be by his side. It is understood Ben is responding positively to treatments.
Cambodia, now one of the most underdeveloped in Asia, was decimated by US bombing campaigns in the 1970s - Nixon's Mad Man strategy to intimidate Vietnam - followed by the twisted reign of the genocidal Khmer Rouge, which was supported by neighbour Thailand. Its infrastructure has never fully recovered, historians say.
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