When Danielle Lomax got a call from her husband Ryan saying their seven-year-old son Harry had a “small fall”, she didn’t think anything of it until the young boy began to feel severely ill.
The Perth couple, who have been living and working remotely in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico since March last year, share three boys: Harry, Alfie, six and Reggie 18 months.
Danielle, 35, describes her eldest boy as very energetic and active and so when husband Ryan, 35, took the kids on their usual morning walk on February 5 and Harry fell, she put it down to “another slip”.
But it was far more serious than that with a CAT scan later revealing Harry needed to have lifesaving emergency surgery following a perforated spleen and free fluid in his abdomen.
“There is a lot of construction with new houses being built in the estate we are staying at and Harry was jumping from one concrete slab to another, on the ground,” Danielle told news.com.au.
“After he jumped and jumped again, he slipped and fell straight on his stomach on a concrete slab.
“It was nothing out of the ordinary for him. He got up bit winded and said he was fine and continued to walk.”
However, moments later Danielle, a former banker who was working on her newly formed e-commerce business at home, said she received a distressed call from her husband that Harry can’t walk and they needed to be picked up.
“I brought them home and after I returned from grocery shopping, Harry was in bed vomiting. “Ryan tried to help him to the toilet but he just fell.
“I took one look at him and knew something was not right.”
The couple gathered the kids and rushed Harry to Hospiten Cabo San Lucas — a local hospital just two minutes from their place.
“At this point Harry was just white and kept saying his tummy was hurting,” Danielle recounted.
Following a CAT scan doctors found a graze under his rib cage that was 10cm long where he landed on the slab.
“They struggled to get blood out of him or any fluids into him — we later found out it was because his vein had collapsed from shock.
“As soon as the results from the CAT scan came though, the doctor made a call straight away and I knew something was really wrong.”
“Harry’s spleen had been damaged and there was a lot of blood in his abdomen.”
The seven-year-old boy needed to have an emergency splenectomy — a surgical procedure to remove his spleen that took 4.5 hours.
“He was so scared. He didn’t know what was happening and just kept saying his stomach was sore and wanted to go home.”
“We found out later his spleen had ruptured inside of him and there was about 600ml of blood in his abdomen which is an awful lot of blood for a little boy.
“The surgeon went in and removed his spleen. If we didn’t get him to hospital in time, if his spleen continued to bleed into his body, he would have died,” Danielle said as she fought back tears.
“I am just grateful my gut instinct kicked in and we took him straight to hospital.”
She described the experience as “horrible” and “scary”.
“It all happened so quickly and I was honestly praying they would bring my baby back because I didn’t think he was coming back.”
Harry is now looking at a six-week recovery period and while he will still be able to cope with most infections without a spleen, there is a small risk that a serious infection may develop quickly.
“He is still in a bit of pain from the surgery and moving forward we need to focus on rebuilding his immunity.”
The family has had to take a huge chunk from their savings — more than $25,000 — to cover medical bills after Danielle found out their travel insurance had lapsed and trauma insurance they hold in Australia won’t cover them as it’s not deemed not “traumatic” enough.
“I didn’t check my renewals or emails and the biggest take away is to always make sure you have travel insurance in place.”
A group of mums from Harry’s school in Perth have started a GoFundMe to help ease the financial burden for the family during what has been a traumatic time.
Danielle said she is beyond grateful for the gesture.
“We never expected anyone to do this for us. We are just so grateful for so many things, our family and friends who have helped us through this. Every single message and call means the world,” Danielle said.
“It is a stupid amount of money for medical bills, but we are just grateful Harry is well and we have such great support.
“Do I regret not double checking the travel insurance renewal I’m sure I did in December? S**t yes! Can I change it? Nope. Have I put new travel insurance in place? You bloody bet,” Danielle said.
“If you are travelling, have insurance. If you think you do, double check. You might not.”