Family launches fundraiser for Scottish youth left in coma after fall
Zak Mcgowan suffered serious injuries after falling some three storeys from a building on the last night of his holiday in Malta
The family and friends of a Scottish tourist who sustained serious injuries after falling from a building have launched a Gofundme campaign to cover his medical bills as the youth remains in a coma.
Zak Mcgowan, 21, who was on holiday in Malta with five other friends, fell some three storeys from the balcony of an apartment in Mellieħa on May 24, the last night of their stay. Friends said he had been on a video call with his mother just hours before the incident.
Mcgowan’s mother, Carrie-Ann McKenzie, told Scottish media the doctors have warned he “will be a different boy when he wakes up” after suffering head trauma, a fractured spine and multiple broken bones from the fall.
McKenzie said a paramedic happened to be going past the building just as the incident happened and gave her son immediate assistance while an ambulance arrived “within three minutes and he had a blood transfusion within 30 minutes”.
The mother flew to Malta the next day accompanied by her father and Mcgowan’s father and has maintained a constant vigil at her son’s bedside in hospital where he remains under sedation.
She told Scottish media medical staff “may attempt to rouse Zak on June 10 after performing surgery on his spine”.
Family and friends have now set up a Gofundme campaign to raise £12,000 to cover Mcgowan’s medical bills as well as daily expenses as the family looks set to be in Malta for some time until he recovers.
Magistrate Monica Borg Galea is leading an inquiry into the incident.