Royal London junior doctor Sebastian Kola-Bankole has dedicated his life to saving other people’s, but now he himself is lying in a hospital bed after a horrible accident on holiday.
Mr kola-Bankole, who works at the Whitechapel hospital’s infectious diseases unit, was on the trip of a lifetime in Las Vegas when a tragic accident on February 15 left him so badly injured he had to be put into a medically-induced coma.
The 35-year-old, who studied at UCL and KCL, has already had emergency operations on his ears, arteries and spine, and while he is now in a “critical but stable condition” his recovery is expected to take a very long time.
This trauma is made worse by the fact that Mr Kola-Bankole is thousands of miles away from home - and can’t pay his bills at the Sunrise Hospital and Medical Centre Intensive Care in Las Vegas.
In just a week, the costs have spiralled and it is estimated they will “be well over £100,000”. His friend Alexander Ademokun has started an online campaign on GoFundMe to help pay the bills and get the medic moved back to the UK once he is well enough, although Mr Ademokun acknowledges that “this may take some time”.
In only a day, 2,000 good samaritans have donated £65,000 to help the doctor pay for his medical treatment. His friend is hoping to raise £250,000 to cover the costs of the Sunrise Hospital bills and repatriation to the UK.
Ironically, before his accident, Mr Kola-Bankole had spent time training in the States and said his experience of America’s insurance-based healthcare system left him with “a greater appreciation” of the NHS. When he returned to the UK, he spent time working at the Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals NHS Trust and also raised money for a homeless charity on a sponsored run.
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