Bangkok - A Thai hospital needs 6,200 dollars in additional donations to repatriate a comatose German man they have been treating gratis for the past 10 months, hospital sources said Monday.
Mathias Stefan Koch, 39, was admitted to Songklanakarind Hospital in Had Yai, 700 kilometres south of Bangkok, on October 25 after sustaining a head injury that left him in a coma at the city airport.
The hospital, which has been treating him for free since the incident, tried to contact Koch's relatives via the German embassy but failed to find anyone willing to pay for his trip home.
Last week the hospital set up a Fund for Assisting the Patient Named Mathias Stefan Koch in an attempt to raise 400,000 baht (US$12,900) from the public to fly Koch and accompanying doctors and nurses to Germany.
"So far we've raised 208,800 baht (US$6,735) or so, but still need some more to meet the expense of sending him home," said Sukanya Panthomrawee, head of the hospital's patients' rights and entitlement division.
The trip would "require special transport since Koch is still in need of extensive care." She expressed satisfaction with the response to the hospital's appeal for donations.
According to news reports, natives of Bamberg, Koch's home town, have donated generously to bring him home.
"We've been overwhelmed," said Franz Eibl, municipal spokesman in the southern German city, which has established a special bank account so that people can transfer their donations directly.
Eibl said German doctors had offered to escort the man without charge. A city court has appointed a legal representative to decide on the sick man's treatment.
In Bamberg, Eibl said the man's grandmother, who lives near the city, and some other relatives were alive.