The family of a California woman in a coma after a scooter crash two weeks ago in Bali is being barred from visiting due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, loved ones and U.S. officials said Monday.
Kaitlyn McCaffery, a 27-year-old Northern California native, was found unconscious by the side of a remote road on July 31, her mother, Janine McCaffery, told NBC News.
Doctors at a hospital in Denpasar, Bali, have told McCaffery’s family that she’s in a coma after suffering traumatic brain injuries and other wounds.
Indonesia has been blocking a visa due to the nation’s current struggle with Covid-19, according to Janine McCaffery.
“I just want to be by her side,” the worried 60-year-old mom said.
McCaffery said she’s grateful for all the help she’s received so far from the State Department and her congresswoman, but she’s still not closer to getting to Bali.
“There’s teams of people working on it,” she said. “The (nation) is so locked down with Covid even if they grant me my visa, which we’ve been trying to get since we found out about the accident, I still have to quarantine for eight days.”
The family has hired private nurses to make daily visits to the hospital, helping relay information to loved ones back in the states.
A world traveler, Kaitlyn McCaffery told her Instagram followers just before the crash that she’d been in Bali for two months.
“Loving where I live, the people I have met so far, and the warm warm air,” she wrote. “So happy to call this place home.”
The family is raising money for the costly and delicate act of having her medically evacuated to California.
“Kaitlyn … attended school at Wilcox High in Santa Clara, California and Cal State Fullerton,” the GoFundMe page says. “She graduated with a degree in business entrepreneurship and set off to travel the world. 5 years later, she has visited over 50 countries and built friendships all around the world.”
A spokeswoman for U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., declined to discuss the matter, or even acknowledge that her office is assisting Janine McCaffery. A State Department representative could not immediately be reached for comment.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
