A young student is fighting for his life after accidentally eating rat poison while on his dream exchange programme.
Alex Shorey, 24, has been in the intensive care unit at Taipei Medical University Hospital in Taiwan since April 18 after inadvertently ingesting Super Warfarin - a strong poison.
It is not clear how he ingested the poison but his family believe it was from contaminated street food, the student's aunt Lizzy Shorey-Kitson said.
His brother Jean-Luc Shorey, 26, said Alex's symptoms were "very strange" and started out as a nosebleed and blood in his urine.
As his condition worsened, Alex's father Stephen Shorey, who is a doctor in Toowoomba, southern Queensland, Australia, flew to Taiwan, urging doctors to do further blood and plasma tests.
The student's brother said he was initially given the wrong diagnosis, with doctors saying he ad an immune disorder - and in the meantime, his symptoms got worse.
Jean-Luc said: "The longer it took to diagnose, he was getting his kidney, liver, lungs, and heart damaged.
"Because the blood had perforated his muscles he started getting black spots all over his body as the blood seeped into his muscles."
Alex also started experiencing black spots on his skin, which was a sign of blood haemorrhaging into his muscles, Jean-Luc said.
On April 18, the "funny and bubbly" exchange student at Tamkang University in Taipei went into hypovolemic shock, an emergency condition in which severe blood or other fluid loss makes the heart unable to pump enough blood to the body.
His family said Alex cannot fly on a commercial flight and can only return home to Queensland via a specialised medical flight retrieval service as he needs high pressure oxygen treatment and the support of an ICU team.
They said medical services in Taiwan do not have the right treatment or drugs he needs to take in order to stabilise his condition - and added the head of the ICU at the Royal Prince Albert Hospital in Sydney have a specialist toxicology team on standby.
Alex's aunt created a GoFundMe campaign two days ago to pay for a medical charter as it is not covered by insurance and has now raised over $200,000 (£105,600).
Alex's uncle Ross Shorey-Kitson said he is now conscious but has been "in and out of ICU" due to complications from his poisoning and his treatment. He added that the man's lungs are filled with fluid.
To donate to the fundraiser, click here.
