A UK tourist in Vietnam broke her leg in a moped crash and was forced to spend her 25th birthday in hospital - then had to spend £8,000 to get home. Sara Khan, 25, with her best friend Nicole Reardon, 25, when they were both involved in a horror collision.
Sara suffered a broken femur and Nicole - taking the brunt of the damage - broke both her wrists, her arm, fractured her pelvis and rib and lost a tooth. Pictures show the pair when they first got on the moped having the time of their lives.
Sara had been backpacking across Australia and the Philippines for two months before making their way to Vietnam, to meet Nicole, who was only visiting for two weeks. The pair and their friends hired mopeds in Phong Nha when the accident happened.
Sara said: "Both me and Nicole cannot remember the accident or the whole day, due to shock I'm sure. But we were told by my friend Camilla who was in front on another bike with her boyfriend, that a car in the opposite lane was trying to overtake cars in in front of him.
"And in doing so came into our lane and hit us off our bike. The driving is pretty crazy in Vietnam. A Vietnamese person called the ambulance and within 10-20 minutes I and Nicole were both in separate ambulances, but none of the local hospitals would accept us.
"So we had to drive three hours to get to Hue Hospital which is an international hospital. We only got given pain medication after an hour of travelling when my friend Camilla forced the drivers to stop at a nearby hospital to give us morphine."
Nicole went into surgery immediately due to the nature of her injuries, while Sara had to wait till the day after. Sara said: "I had a metal rod and nails put in my leg to fix my femur, and Nicole had arm and wrist operation and then had to have her right wrist rebroken as they didn’t notice it was fractured until about day seven in the hospital.
"We were in separate rooms at first so it was really confusing waking up and not knowing where you are or what’s happened."
The pair were in hospital for nine days and Sara's dad and Nicole's mum flew out from the UK to see them. Thankfully the pair had insurance to cover their medical bills but because of other expenses, they had to spend £8000 getting themselves and their parents back home.
Sara said: "We both luckily had insurance, I can't imagine how much worse it would have been if we didn’t. My operation was around £8K - our out-of-pocket expenses for things like the hotel stay for my father, and me when we left the hospital, a wheelchair and crutches, and the flights expenses were around 8K.
"I could not bend my leg so we had to fly business class or I wouldn't be able to get back."
The driver who crashed into them in what is believed to be a head-on collision on the opposite side of the road and was not reprimanded by the police. Sara believes that they were victim of a scam common with tourists in the area.
Sara said: "Unfortunately the driver and the police claimed it was our fault, and we had to pay £350 for the damages to the driver's car and sign a document to say we will not complain or sue, or we wouldn’t be allowed out of the country.
"This apparently is a known scam with any westerners in accidents and means the police can share the cut of what we paid him. My friend Camilla and her boyfriend Alex were dealing with all of this whilst me and Nicole were first in hospital, and with no help or guidance around they were almost pressured into signing this document and paying out."
Despite all of this trauma, Sar still plans on returning to Asia to complete her backpacking next year.
