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Lucy Hill: Injured British girl out of serious danger in Thailand after emergency blood donor appeal

Lucy has had a brain haemorrhage, a titanium metal plate put into her pelvis and will need more surgery

Emma Henderson
Tuesday 12 January 2016 13:39 GMT
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Lucy Hill, 21, was travelling in Thailand on a gap year when she was injured
Lucy Hill, 21, was travelling in Thailand on a gap year when she was injured (Lucy Hill// Facebook)

A British backpacker left in intensive care after a road accident in Thailand is out of immediate danger after an appeal for blood donors.

Queues of people formed outside Maharaj Nakorn Chiang Mai hospital on Monday to donate blood to Lucy Hill, according to the Manchester Evening News.

Ms Hill, 21, from Bury, Greater Manchester, suffered severe injuries after she was reportedly hit by a car while on a moped in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand.

The recent graduate, who was just six days into her gap-year trip, suffered a broken pelvis and underwent emergency surgery.

Ms Hill’s friend, Darren Burns, who shared the original plea to donate blood on Facebook, revealed she had now received a blood transfusion​.

I have received endless amounts of thank u’s through facebook and via text when really stuff like this doesn’t need a...

Posted by Darren Burns on Monday, 11 January 2016

"Luce is still in intensive care but has recieved the urgent blood transfusion she needed," he wrote.

"Compassionate people from all over the world came together over the space of 24 hours for a girl from Bury!!"

Her case was brought to international attention after Ms Hill's friend she was travelling with, 19-year-old Lauren Hall, posted an urgent plea for blood donations to Facebook.

Can't really come to grips that one of my best friends of nearly 7 years is in intensive care in Thailand...whenever she...

Posted by Darren Burns on Sunday, 10 January 2016

"Negative blood is rare in Thailand and sourcing that blood is difficult. We need to get this everywhere. Social media can be so powerful," she wrote.

The appeal was shared more than 40,000 times within a few hours of it first being posted.

A negative is relatively rare in Thailand, where only one per cent of the population have the blood type.

Phil Hill, her father, told the Manchester Evening News his daughter was likely to need further surgery this week and would need more blood soon.

"People were queuing outside the hospital from 6am this morning hours before they were asked to arrive at 8.30am," he said.

“She is likely to need more surgery to work on her eye socket."

Since arriving in the Thai hospital, Ms Hill has had three blood transfusions, major surgey after a brain haemorrhage and had titanium plates put into her pelvis.

Donor Thomas Stubley, 28, from Wakefield, told the Daily Mail: There must have been about 60 people trying to donate – I’ve never seen anything like it."

Ms Hill studied PE at Leeds Beckett University, and hoped to become a PE teacher after her travels.

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