A 31-year-old mom is fighting for her life in a foreign hospital after suffering total organ failure following a routine cosmetic procedure while on vacation with her family.
Australian Chloe Mowday recently embarked on a family trip around southeast Asia with her husband Josh and her youngest son, with plans to visit Hong Kong and Singapore so that they could see Disneyland and Universal Studios respectively.
However, their trip was cut short on its first leg when Mowday went under the knife in Da Nang, Vietnam, for two routine cosmetic surgeries that are generally considered safe.
The mom-of-three had two day procedures; a rhinoplasty to reshape her nose and a blepharoplasty to modify the appearance of her eyelids. But just a day later, her body shut down as she was rushed to hospital, with her family saying that she even briefly died.
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The family trip began to unravel the morning after the surgery, when Mowday began to feel seriously ill.
Speaking to news.com.au, Chloe's brother Rod said: “She stayed at a clinic in Da Nang overnight and the following morning they took her back to her hotel. A few hours later she started to deteriorate.
“She started to feel strange and had a bit of pain in other areas besides the surgery site, and took the prescribed medication from the doctors, then laid down to rest.
"A few hours later when Josh came to check on her, she wasn’t responding well – then she stopped breathing and I believe in those few hours her organs had started shutting down quickly.”
On the mom-of-three's GoFundMe page, set up by her family, it says that 'she died on the way to hospital' but was able to be revived by 'wonderful' local doctors, who put her on life support in an induced coma.
In the days since, medics have attempted to wake her up, but the 31-year-old's body is still struggling.
“They slowly removed the drugs she was on but her body was still unable to handle it and the following day they had put her back into an induced coma,” Rod said.
“As of last night (Thursday) her eyes are open but she still can’t respond and remains on life support.”
Brother Rod told local media that he believes his sister experienced toxic shock syndrome as a rare complication of her surgeries, but this has not been confirmed by medics who are still investigating the source of her life-threatening illness.
Adding to the family's difficulty is the language barrier in the hospital, with Rod adding that it is 'hard to understand what has gone wrong and what they are doing'.
“The doctors said she is very strong but when I asked if she is going to make it, they couldn’t give me a straightforward answer, obviously for legal reasons,” Rod added.
Mowday is described by her family as a 'beautiful' person with a 'loving soul', who has had her husband and five-year-old son at her side ever since she was rushed into hospital.
Doctors in Vietnam have now told them she would stand a better chance at recovery if transported back to Australia, something which would cost the family $228,000 (AUD).
Hundreds of donations have poured in to help get the Australian mom home, with $25,000 raised at time of writing. You can find Chloe Mowday's GoFundMe page here.
William Morgan