Helping a fellow traveler!

Hello friends!

On March, 2nd, our dear Dutch friend Dennis had a serious motorbike accident. Since then, he has been hospitalised at Chiang Mai Nakornping Hospital.

Due to the injuries resulting from the accident, Dennis had to undergo two surgeries. The first on his head, due to skull fracture and brain bleeding (clot removal). The second was on his right eye/cheek, where a titanium plate and his cheek bone were replaced with a sillecone implantate, because there was nothing left of it.

Fortunately, he is on his way to recovery and might be released from the hospital next week (11-16th, March), according to the doctors. The medical team, though, is still monitoring his progress regarding head injuries (swelling and further bleeding) and also one of his left hand fingers, which might require a third cirurgic procedure.

Friends from Pai have been visiting Dennis in Chiang Mai and he has been progressing since first entering the hospital. Nevertheless, the communication with him is still simple because of the toll the recovery process has taken on him.

So what is this campaign about?

The supportive medical care Dennis demanded due to the severity of his injuries comes at a cost that at the moment our friend cannot afford, more specifically: THB 100,700 (~ US$ 3,170).

Efforts are being made by the people still in Pai to gather funds in order to help him. Nevertheless, due to the time Dennis has spent in Pai and the amount of people that crossed his path while in our lovely northern Thai town, we suspected more people would be willing to help, even if not phisically in Pai anymore.

Due to that, we decided to create this campaign through one of Thailand's emerging crowdfunding websites (it's not so simple to create a campaign where the funds must be retrieved in Thailand on some of the most known platforms). This way more people could help a fellow traveller!

Needless to say that every little help goes a long way. The funds will be destined to help with his hospital bills and furthermore with Dennis medical care once he leaves the hospital, since he isn't medically cleared to board a plane in at least three months.

This is basically a campaign to help a friend to get back on his feet again!

Dennis had already have a few conversations in the last two days where he could express gratitude towards the friends who have been helping him since his injury and this would be just another actitude that would result in more gratefulness from him. Thank you!

Hello!

First of all, we'd like to thank immensely everybody that has contributed so far with the efforts towards helping our friend Dennis, be it with a donation or simply sharing it on your medias. When the idea came out, we didn't really know what to expect of it, but since we launched the campaign it has been a great pleasure and joy to witness the kindness of so many people coming from different parts of the world.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Second, an update on the last few days and next steps:
We are glad to communicate that, after 10 nights, Dennis is leaving the hospital today and is heading back to Pai to continue his recovery!

He has been receiving visits lately from Pai friends and those helps him re-energise from the considerably painful process resulting from the ongoing post-surgical care. This care basically concerns two main things:

- His left hand fingers have been subject to a resilient infection and require constant cleaning, a very painful process every time it is done, injections and antibiotic infusions.

- His head injury, which requires constant monitoring throughout the whole wound healing process, including constant cleaning.

On a positive note, the communication with him keeps improving by the hour and he even had some dance moves to show for a couple days ago! Nevertheless, we have ways to go since Dennis still experiences confusion and forgetfulness, and that's why leaving the hospital and returning to Pai shall help, since it will be easier for friends to be around him offering support.
On top of that, it's important to highlight that our friend keeps expressing his wholehearted thankfulness to everyone who contributed (and still is) helping him turn things around. So, wherever you are, feel free to receive his gratitude along with his bright smile, the same we grew accustomed to see on daily basis!

However, the road to recovery is still long and even though it's absolutely fantastic to have managed to raise roughly 45% of our target since it has been launched, we need help still. His release from Chiang Mai Nakornping Hospital will happen today, but we still don't have the funds to fully pay for medical care costs of the hospital, not to mention the ones that will follow him now in Pai on the second phase of his recovery. Having said that, if you know someone who might me willing to contribute or haven't had the opportunity to donate yet, we humbly ask for your help. As mentioned before, every little support goes a long way!

Feel free to share the campaign if you haven't yet and thank you, this time for taking a few minutes reading this update.