A Colorado father is hospitalized in Denmark after contracting the supervirus while on his first overseas cruise to celebrate his wedding anniversary.
Guy Matlock, 64, was on a 14-day cruise through Northern Europe to celebrate his 37th wedding anniversary with his wife Adrian when he fell ill. It was the couple's first trip outside the United States.
Just six days into the cruise, Matlock began experiencing flu-like symptoms, which quickly developed into a series of other illnesses, said her daughter Moriah. KDVR.
“They got into port as quickly as possible… They found out he had influenza A, pneumonia, sepsis and essentially turned into a supervirus inside his body and started attacking his major organs. I did,” Moria said.
Shortly after, Matlock suffered pulmonary failure and cardiac arrest. His family said he suffered brain damage and was being treated at a Copenhagen hospital.
Moria said he was not fully conscious and relied on a ventilator to breathe, but was stable enough to fly.
His family is working to raise funds for a medical evacuation to bring him back to the United States.
“I feel very isolated in a foreign country where I don't speak the language and there are various social changes,” Moria told KDVR.
“His brain doesn't get enough stimulation from Danish society, because he only hears different languages and doesn't have the ability to calculate.”
Medical evacuation overseas is extremely expensive, costing up to $150,000. In the meantime, Adrian remains in Copenhagen, helping her husband monitor their children, who left for Denmark on emergency passports and have to return to Colorado.
“No one can explain how sad it is to see someone so strong not so strong,” Moria said. WJTV.
“People who had everything you needed in life but were so helpless that they couldn’t even breathe on their own.”
The family set up gofundmehad raised just over $30,000 by Monday night.
