The family of an Alabama “miracle boy” who fell off a 60-foot cliff during a dream trip to Italy claims he’s living in squalid conditions in an Italian hospital after doctors refused to release him.
Hayden Hill, 18, was traveling through Europe with his senior class from New Hope High School after their graduation in May when the vacation turned into a nightmare.
Hill, from Huntsville, Alabama, said he was searching for an entrance to Rome Beach with a friend on June 8 when he fell off a 60-foot cliff. Waf48.
The recruit thought he would reach the shore faster if he jumped over the wall, but in doing so he fell to the shore below, nearly losing his life.
Hill was stranded there for more than an hour before being rescued by the Italian coast guard and rushed to a regional hospital outside Rome.
He was treated for a dislocated hip and femur, and also suffered serious injuries to his ankle and foot, his family said.
Hill has also undergone multiple surgeries since the accident.
“It’s nothing short of a miracle he survived the fall.” GoFundMe “In Italy they call him the ‘miracle boy,'” one page created for teenagers said.
Due to the severity of his injuries, Hill requires around-the-clock care and treatment.
Italian doctors refused to let Hill leave the hospital unless they could fly him to the US on a medical aircraft equipped to treat him.
To make matters worse, his family alleges that the conditions he is currently receiving at the hospital while he recovers are appalling.
“Right now in Italy he is not allowed to move, he is not allowed to sit, he is not allowed to do anything, he doesn’t even have a urinal,” the boy’s sister, Hannah Hill, told the outlet.
“Now they’re worried he’s got bed sores on his bottom. He’s starting to cough up sores. So we’re worried he’s going to start getting pneumonia.”
Since the accident, Hill’s mother, Sharon, has arrived in Italy to be with her son while she searches for a way to bring him back.
However, since her admission her relationship with the hospital’s medical staff has not been exactly friendly.
“The orthopedic surgeon came in screaming, yelling at everyone and then the American doctor came in and shook his head and said we are taking this baby off your hands and will be responsible for him from now on,” she wrote on Facebook. post Wednesday.
“That’s not going to happen.”
Hill’s mother said that if she can’t get her son on a plane to the U.S. by Saturday, she plans to “at least transfer him to a better hospital in Rome, where there are more English speakers and he can get better care.”
“The socialized health care system makes people different! Not necessarily bad, but very different from back home,” she wrote.
Sharon Hill also admitted that her son was “coughing up dark brown mucus”, that he was forced to wear diapers and that he was “expecting to be given a urinal”.
His sister said the U.S. Embassy has offered to provide a wheelchair and van to transport him to a hospital if they can find a flight to bring him back to Alabama, but the cost of a medical flight is reportedly more than the family can afford.
“I’m not worried about getting him on a plane. I’m not worried about getting him to the hospital. I just want to get him out of the hospital and get him treated,” Hannah Hill said. Waf48.
“Our goal is to bring Hayden back to the United States no matter the means or cost,” his GoFundMe page states.
