A woman “left for dead” in a hit-and-run accident in Bali is expected to have no memory of the incident when she awakes after her 13-hour marathon surgery.
Newcastle woman Victoria Van de Stadt, 25, and her boyfriend Louis Macindoe, 26, were knocked from their rented scooter by a car while on holiday in Kuta last Wednesday night.
Ms Van de Stadt suffered the most severe injuries of the pair when she was launched face-first into a roadside tree.
Yesterday she underwent 13 hours of surgery to plant titanium plates in her cheeks and piece together her split jaw and smashed eye socket, nose and palate at Perth Royal Hospital and is now in an induced coma.
Her boyfriend also had surgery after suffering injuries to his head and face and woke with "no recollection" of the events, according to Ms Van de Stadt's mother Tracey Priestley.
Ms Priestley told News.com.au she was overwhelmed preparing for her daughter to wake, which would possibly be later today. It is expected Ms Van de Stadt won't remember anything either.
“I expect for her to be freaking out I guess; I’ve just got no idea how to prepare,” she said.
“I feel like it will just be incredibly confronting for her and I don’t know how she’s going to take it or what happens in these situations.
"You see in the movies people open their eyes and wake up and start talking, but I’ve been told it’s not going to be like that.”
Ms Van de Stadt faces a long recovery - it is expected she will be unable to eat and speak months and will have difficulty walking due to spinal injuries she suffered.
“Tori’s strong, she’s really healthy, but this isn’t like anything she’s been through,” Ms Priestley said.
A friend of the hairdresser, Hayley McCloy, has launched a fundraising campaign that has already raised more than $67,000 to go towards covering the family’s travels and hospital expenses.
“With a long road of recovery ahead, Tori must undergo major facial reconstructive surgery and ongoing treatment,” Ms McCloy wrote on the gofundme page.
“The international hospital fees and travel expenses to transport her safely back to Australia have already amounted to over $60,000 dollars.”
The couple were reportedly on their way back from dinner on their final night in Bali when they were struck.
Two passersby came across them and found their motorbike “folded in half” in the middle of the road. The couple were bleeding and unconscious in a nearby ditch.
“The guy that found Tori had to keep her airways open for over an hour until the ambulance arrived because her face was so smashed up,” Ms Priestley told The Sydney Morning Herald.
“We don’t know how long they were there for.”
Mr Macindoe wrote a tribute to his girlfriend on Instagram alongside the last photo he took of her in Bali.
“This was the last photo I had on my phone before the incident that resulted in both of us becoming hospitalised,” he wrote.
“I’ve been operated on and gathered enough sense to operate my phone, sort of. Tori is still undergoing surgery and I need for you all to be still keeping her in your thoughts.
“It’s hard to get any purchase on what happened given the circumstances, it’s the first time in my life that I’ve come that close to wiping out completely.
“While you might consider yourself to be pretty well versed on two wheels, sometimes your number can just be up.”
Feature image: Instagram.
Top Comments
So gofundme is sued again for people without travel insurance. Sorry for her pain, but the financial consequences are your own and self created problem.
I feel for them and their families. .. but it is every travellers responsibility to have travel insurance and to make sure they are covered for the activities they will be undertaking. I don't understand tourists riding scooters or motorbikes in that traffic at all. Seems a high risk activity to me but of course an accident can happen on a quiet road too. That's why you need travel insurance or a very large reserve bank account!
I don't see any mention of helmets. Were they wearing helmets? The head injuries seem to suggest not.