The father of an Aussie tourist stabbed on his Fiji holiday has broken his silence to urge others to have travel insurance.
Clayton Brett, 43, sought medical attention at a hospital in Nadi for a stab wound to his stomach instead of boarding his flight home to on May 1.
He has been in an induced coma after becoming rapidly unwell once his wound became infected and he developed sepsis.
The medivac flight back to cost $140,000 and his hospital fees came to a whopping $80,000.
The tourist’s father, Terry Brett, told 7News the situation had been ‘very difficult’ for the family to deal with.
‘The worry was for us that if we didn’t get him home then, we possibly wouldn’t get him home,’ he said.
The stabbing comes as the Fiji government warned high cost-of-living pressures have seen an uptick in crime and urged tourists and locals to be careful.
The father of an Aussie tourist (pictured, Clayton Brett) stabbed on his Fiji holiday has broken his silence to urge others to have travel insurance
Clayton Brett, 43, sought medical attention at a hospital in Nadi for a stab wound to his stomach instead of boarding his flight home to on May 1
‘While we urge the Fiji Police Force to increase their presence in towns, cities and communities … we urge every Fijian to take caution in public spaces and secure their premises,’ Fiji MP Rinesh Sharma said.
Mr Brett said the soaring cost of the medical flight was reminder for n tourists to make sure they had organised their insurance.
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‘Any person that goes overseas and doesn’t have travel insurance is silly,’ Mr Brett said.
Clayton’s family first became concerned about their son when they hadn’t heard from him.
His parents, stepbrother and cousin desperately tried to track him down.
His stepbrother Matthew Davis said Clayton didn’t come home when he was meant to and wasn’t answering any phone calls.
In desperation, the family began to call hospitals in Fiji.
‘We had a bad feeling there was something going on, so we called the hospitals to see if by chance he was at any of the hospitals,’ Mr Davis said.
‘They got news he was there and he actually presented with a stab wound to the stomach.’
As soon as they heard the news, Mr Brett and his partner Jenny Davis were on the next flight to Fiji to be by his side.
When they arrived, they were told Clayton must remain in 24-hour intensive care to receive treatment.
The medivac flight back to cost $140,000 and his hospital fees came to a whopping $80,000
Septic shock is a life-threatening condition that can cause dangerously low blood pressure and organs to shutdown.
Clayton required dialysis as his kidneys were failing, but the hospital in Nadi didn’t have a functioning dialysis machine.
His parents made the crucial decision to fly him back to at a cost of $140,000, which they had to scrape together and pay up front.
A GoFundMe was set up by Clayton’s stepbrother to help ease the financial burden.