Alexander García Galas’ vacation in Thailand is dragging on like a nightmare. He came for twelve days, but tomorrow he will be two months old. He booked an organized and affordable trip, but now his family must face hospitalization fees in Bangkok of 2,500 euros per night – surgeries apart – and not exactly in a suite.
La Vanguardia finds Álex in his Intensive Care cubicle with a confused expression and a lost look. A painful image that, combined with the details of his ordeal, would be enough to put a country on its feet and accelerate his repatriation, at any cost. However, his mother, Tere, is overcome by modesty. “No, not photos of the face. He saw himself in one and it affected him a lot.”
Regarding the possible sending of an army plane from Spain, Tere knows “that they are studying it”, but assures that “there is nothing, nothing confirmed, if it were tomorrow (Friday), we would know, but no one has told us anything.”
Tere is accompanied by her daughter-in-law, Sayoa, Álex’s sister-in-law. His wife, Usoa Martínez, is in San Sebastián, taking care of her two girls, ages 5 and 8. On April 12, she boarded in Bangkok, heading to Paris, a couple of hours before the scheduled flight of the air ambulance that was to transport Álex and for which the family had paid “221,000 euros.” Upon landing in Paris she learned that her husband never boarded and that he was returned, in critical condition, to the hospital. The company, hired by another family member from Euskadi, refuses to refund the amount of the service not provided, according to her mother, saying that they fulfilled her part.
The family has lost count of the expenses caused by the acute pancreatitis that attacked Alex when his trip to the north of Thailand – Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai – had barely begun and the jump to the island of Phuket was still far away. He had to be admitted directly to the ICU in Chiang Mai. After a few weeks, the doctor advised his repatriation and although he managed to take a regular flight from Chiang Mai to Bangkok, the captain of the flight that was to take him to Munich – Tere thinks he remembers that with Lufthansa – forced him to get off the plane because of your state.
On the advice of the same doctor and without any consultation, Álex was admitted to one of the two most expensive hospitals in Bangkok. From Japanese executives to several ambassadors from Spain, all of them are protected by comprehensive insurance and in rooms very different from the cubicle that Álex occupies. His insurance soon exceeded the coverage limit of one hundred thousand euros. “Since then, everything comes out of our pocket,” says Tere.
Tere acknowledges that the online collection to help her son (crowdfunding) has already raised more than one hundred thousand euros, which will be dedicated to paying medical bills. Under no circumstances, she says, will they risk losing them again with a private air ambulance.
The García Galas family, from Basauri, appreciates the consular visit “three or four days ago”, which together with television pressure would have set the wheels in motion to get Álex out of the hell in which he finds himself, at the limit of his resources, physical and material. “Until now, no one else has approached us to ask us anything. With the staff, we communicate with Google translate,” explains Tere. “And Álex is with us typing on his cell phone, although sometimes he gets tired mid-word. He has blood clots, inflammation of pancreas. He has it very difficult, but mentally he is very strong,” says the mother, herself an example of amazing fortitude.
In any case, he wants to address some of the things he has seen in the media. “Álex did not have any discomfort before going on vacation nor did he go to any doctor,” he clarifies.
