Few details are known about the crash other than it happened on Tuesday night (September 10), and friends Paul Dyer, Les Angel and Peter Brain were notified the following day that Gerry, 63, was in Vachira Hospital.
Gerry suffered serious facial injuries in the crash – which have required extensive reconstruction – as well as nerve damage to his right shoulder.
When Paul and Les visited Gerry last weekend, they found that his condition had deteriorated, he was having trouble breathing, and there was no room in Vachira’s ICU for him.
“We didn’t think he was going to make it through the night,” Paul said.
The decision was made to change him to a different hospital where there was space in ICU, and only Bangkok Hospital Phuket had the cosmetic facial surgeons able to do the required surgery.
On Sunday night (September 15), he was transferred to Bangkok Phuket Hospital, but that raised another problem – Gerry’s insurance coverage.
Once he was stabilised at the international hospital, surgery tool place to repair his face, including rebuilding his nose, top jaw, and cheekbone and resetting his teeth. His jaw has been wired together and will remain that way for the next four weeks while it heals.
At this stage he doesn’t have any serious head injuries, and is alert with “bright eyes”, friends said. However he had limited hand movement and could communicate only via pointing.
“We are past those dark days and he’s in a much better place than he was four or five days ago,” Paul said.
The friends said there was some confusion over Gerry’s insurance. Either he had none, or the type he has does not provide coverage to take care of such massive medical expenses.
Currently his treatment bill at Bangkok Phuket Hospital is more than B1million, which has been paid for by Paul.
“He’s covered until Monday, and hopefully he will be out of ICU by tomorrow and moved to a normal ward. Then there will be another assessment.”
In the meantime, friends have started fundraising, and have contacted the British Embassy to help liaise with family members back in the United Kingdom.
Originally from Doncaster in Yorkshire, England, Gerry moved to Phuket to retire around eight years ago. He now lives in Rawai with his girlfriend Tuanjai.
“He’s a very sociable person, and he’s friends with everyone,” Paul said.
Gerry is an active member of the Patong Darts League and the Southern Pool League. The Darts League will be having a meeting tonight (September 20) to discuss possible ways of raising money, and a representative from the Royal British Legion in Pattaya – support group for ex-British servicemen and women – was potentially going to visit Gerry this weekend.
For more information on the situation or how you can help, please contact Paul on 084 838 4607, Les on 083 360 5914, or Peter on 087 916 6801.
For those wishing to donate, deposits can be made into the following account:
Account name: Bangkok Phuket Hospital
Account number: 442-3-03132-9
Bank name: Bangkok Bank Public Co Ltd, Thepkasatri Road Branch.
Destination Bank: Bangkok Bank Public Co Ltd. Foreign Inward Remittance Section
Swift address: BKKBTHBK
When depositing, please use the following details:
Gerald Mason
Patient Number (HN): 05-08-020-474
ICU bed 210