The heartbroken daughter of a British father who is dying in a Turkish hospital raced to the country to be by his bedside only to be told she could see him for just ten minutes.
Joanna Kearney, 35, flew to the country last Friday after her 64-year-old dad, John, was in a horrific scooter crash in the resort town İçmeler.
But when she arrived at the hospital the next day, she was told to line up and wait for her father’s name to be called by security before having to show her passport.
Only then was she allowed to be by John’s side, where she took his palm into her gloved hand.
It is costing the mother-of-three £100 in taxi fares every time she makes the two-hour round-trip journey to Mugla to have a fleeting moment with her beloved father.
The grandfather is currently on a life support machine, with Joanna being given the devastating news on Tuesday that his brain injury was too severe and there was nothing else doctors could do.
The doting daughter was told that even if John were to wake up he would likely have serious brain damage.
She told the Daily Mail: ‘I would sleep there if I could, but I can’t.’
Joanna has since started a GoFundMe fundraiser to help pay for his medical bills after his travel insurance said they would not cover the cost as he wasn’t wearing a helmet.
Joanna described the chaos inside the hospital when she visited on Saturday and said there was ‘nobody there at all to speak to’.
‘No one could understand us, and when I found where my dad was, they were showing us names on bits of paper that weren’t even my dad’s,’ she said.
‘The visiting times are between 2pm and 4pm but when you arrive everyone is queuing up. You are in a queue and then security will shout the patient’s name and you have to show your passport.
‘When I saw him, I just spoke with him and passed on messages from his missus and the family, telling him how much we love him.’
John, a handyman from Birkenhead, Wirral, had been on holiday in Turkey with his friends and girlfriend Sheila, who is currently ‘in a mess’.
He had hired a scooter to get around the town, but had not been given a helmet by the rental company.
It is illegal in Turkey not to wear protective headgear while riding a motorcycle or moped.
Tragedy struck last Tuesday evening when John was travelling back to the harbour to pick up Sheila after dropping his pal off at her apartment.
He was just metres from returning when it is thought his leg clipped a 4×4’s trailer, which sent him ‘flying’ before his head slammed onto the floor.
John, who wasn’t believed to have been speeding, was rushed to hospital where he was diagnosed with a severe brain bleed and placed in an induced coma. He also has a gash on his leg and a graze on the side of his face.
But doctors say they can’t operate as it would kill him due to the swelling.
He has now been taken off his sedation medication but has still not woken up and can’t breathe by himself.
Joanna piled clothes into a 10kg suitcase and boarded a plane with her uncle and John’s brother, Phil, on Friday when she was told ‘things weren’t looking good’.
Her three children – aged 9, 14, and 16 – are aware of their grandfather’s grave condition and flew out with a family yesterday to Turkey.
Joanna said she is heartbroken and broke down when medics told her they would be turning off her father’s life support machine in a week.
‘They told me they think dad will never wake up,’ she said.
‘They said that he’s not going to make it or wake up. They have taken him off his sedation and medicines, and he has still not come round on his own. The machine is basically keeping him going.
‘There is little blood flow to his brain.’
Joanna said her father’s prognosis has left her ‘absolutely speechless’.
She said: ‘I knew it was bad, but I had been getting on with it, thinking that he would get better.
‘I had a breakdown as it all was too much. I had been trying to speak to the hospital but it was an absolute nightmare.
‘Today (Tuesday) was the only day I had a conversation and was basically told my dad isn’t going to live. I’m worried, I’m stressed, and I’m scared.’
Joanna described her father as a ‘very happy, cheeky, chappy’ who would do anything for anyone.
‘Everyone loves him,’ she said. ‘He was always there for me when I needed him. My children had kept asking me when I was coming home. But I don’t really know, so I was feeling stressed with that side.
‘I feel like I need to go home but I can’t go home as I know my dad needs me now more than ever.’
John had taken out ‘top-of-the-range insurance’ but the family is unable to claim on it as he wasn’t wearing a helmet.
Joanna is blaming the rental company for not supplying her father with the safety gear, although she says she has seen ‘loads of people’ in Turkey riding motorcycles without one.
‘When I can see everyone hasn’t got one on, I can see why he didn’t make a fuss about it,’ she said.
On her fundraising page, Joanna said doctors had agreed to keep her father on life support for another week.
‘We’re all still trying to process everything. It’s so hard. We’re holding on to hope, even though the reality is really heavy right now,’ she wrote.
