24-year-old Alex Shorey, who was fighting for his life in Taiwan after inadvertently consuming rat poison, has finally returned to Australia and has thanked everyone for their help.
The university student made headlines when his aunty Elizabeth Shorey-Kitson launched a GoFundMe to help fly Shorey back to Australia after he unknowingly ingested superwarfarin (AKA rat poison) before Easter.
Per ABC News, on Saturday his family released a video showing Shorey in a hospital bed in Brisbane’s Princess Alexandra Hospital.
“Thank you everyone who helped me get home,” Shorey said in the video.
Speaking outside of the hospital, Shorey’s parents Steve and Julie said: ” While Alex still has a long road ahead, in terms of his recovery, his condition is improving.”
“He has a partially collapsed left lung, pericardial effusion, and adrenal insufficiency from the steroids he was getting to help manage his reactions to the injectable vitamin K1,” they added.
Earlier this week, Medical Rescue shared an update on its official Facebook, where they confirmed the safe arrival of Shorey.
The Facebook Post said: “Some international medical retrieval missions are more challenging than others and we are pleased to say this young Australian is now safely home in a Brisbane hospital after being poisoned with rat poison in Taiwan. We wish him well with a speedy recovery.”
Before Shorey was poisoned, the Toowoomba student had been studying at the Tamkang University in Taipei for almost a year.
When his health began to decline, Shorey sought medical treatment at the Taipei Medical University Hospital. He had been there since April 18, but his family wanted him to be brought back to Australia for life-saving treatment.
On April 25, Shorey-Kitson launched a GoFundMe page to help raise $170,000 for an urgent flight home for the student.
“Four weeks have passed since his initial symptoms,” she wrote.
“The delay in diagnosis, the language barrier in Taiwan, and lack of effective treatment has led to further complications in Alex’s condition resulting in organ damage, respiratory failure and anaemia.”
Shorey-Kitson would end up reaching a total of $208,682 in donations before closing the fundraiser.
“We are so overwhelmed and humbled by the amount of love, support and kindness we have received, and thanks to the generosity of you all, our journey to bring Alex home is now underway,” Ms Shorey-Kitson wrote.
“It was huge 24/36 hours and now to have reached our goal and to have Alex booked on a plane has left us in tears of joy. We still can‘t quite believe it!”
While the circumstances of Alex’s poisoning have not been confirmed, his family initially believed he may have been exposed to contaminated food.
“Whilst we’re unsure exactly how this poisoning occurred, it is suspected that Alex may have picked up some food at a local street market or along his travels that was either laced with poison, or had somehow been contaminated with super warfarin [sic],” they wrote.
However, according to ABC News, Taiwan police say they’re investigating a female friend of Shorey who may have info on how he ingested superwarfarin.
“Police questioned this female friend on Thursday and restricted her from leaving Taiwan,” a spokesman for the police said.
