'My mum retired to beautiful country – now she's paralysed and unable to breathe'

'My mum retired to beautiful country – now she's paralysed and unable to breathe' EXCLUSIVE: Heinrich Kreuger was home in Oxfordshire when he got a voicenote from his mum saying she had been admitted to hospital — but she was soon left paralysed A 60-year-old woman who moved to Cambodia to enjoy what she hoped would be a beautiful retirement abroad was left paralysed and unable to breathe after contracting a tropical disease. Helena Kreuger was fighting for her life in hospital after suffering from severe dengue fever — which is an infection spread by mosquitoes. Despite not usually being serious, the terrified grandmother suffered rare complications, and it caused her to become completely paralysed from the neck down. Her son, Heinrich Kreuger, who is based in Oxfordshire, is now desperately trying to support his mum from the UK while waiting for his passport renewal to be finalised so he can be by her side. He has set up a GoFundMe to help ease the medical financial burden that has come from his mother ending up in ICU, which has already set the family back thousands. The long-term goal is to see Helena one day walk again and breathe independently. Speaking exclusively to this reporter, Heinrich said: “It’s just been really emotional for me and my family to see my mum like this. She was really happy and excited to travel to Cambodia and live life on her own terms. “It’s been really emotional to see her go from someone that’s happy and positive to being completely paralysed where it didn’t look good from the doctor’s side. It has been a really emotional week and a half and it looked really bad.” Helena is originally from South Africa where she worked as a project manager before she decided to embrace a complete change. She decided on Cambodia after a lot of research and she was “really excited” to settle over there, making the move in June. Her son, who is a bid writer, said she was looking forward to being more involved with nature and to explore a brand new country without having work commitments. However, on August 30, Heinrich got a voicenote from his mum, who told him that she had been admitted to Sonja Kill Memorial Hospital in Kampot. He was then unable to reach her on the phone and a doctor later explained that she had a severe dengue infection and she had to be put on a ventilator. And writing on GoFundMe about how his mum’s health spiralled, he said: “In simple terms, her immune system cleared the dengue virus but mistakenly turned against her own central and peripheral nervous systems. “This caused complete quadriplegia, blunted cranial reflexes, and shut down her autonomous drive to breathe, requiring immediate mechanical life support in the ICU.” Doctors concluded that she had Bickerstaff Brainstem Encephalitis which causes inflammation in the brainstem — along with Guillain-Barré syndrome which is when your immune system mistakenly attacks your peripheral nerves. This meant she lost control and movement in all of her limbs — and at the moment she can only move her eyes and mouth. Asked whether this was reversible, Heinrich confirmed that it was, but he added: “They just don’t know how long it will take. It could be months, it could be years, it could be anywhere in between those.” He added: “The doctors were not very optimistic about anything. They were considering long-term ventilation or trying to do palliative care, towards the end of life, in a way. I didn’t want my mum to go through that alone. I wanted to be by her side.” Thankfully, Helena has seen a big improvement since the weekend, and has been more responsive. She can now open her eyes, wink one of her eyes on command and she now understands what is going on. CT scans show her brain structure is normal and she has also had successful airway surgery and targeted immunotherapy called Intravenous Immunoglobulin (IVIG) to stop further inflammation. But troublingly, the mum was still in the process of getting her medical insurance in place while she lived there, meaning her treatment has been expensive. During the first 10 days in ICU, the cost rose to over £7,000, and Heinrich set up a fundraiser to get some help to avoid his mum and the family “worrying about the medical expenses the whole time”. As for what the future entails, he acknowledged: “It is too early to say. But we are hopeful because she slowly started moving a little bit of her eye and mouth. There’s no saying what the next steps will be, how long it will take or the care that will be needed to help her live somewhat of a life.” And writing on the GoFundMe, which you can make a donation to here, he concluded: “Every pound donated goes directly to Helena’s hospital accounts, critical medications, and post-ICU rehabilitation. “If you are unable to donate, sharing this link with your network or keeping Helena in your thoughts provides immense strength to our family. Thank you for standing with Helena in her fight to walk and breathe on her own again.”