SA citizen stuck abroad — Please help!!

- To whom it may concern, – ‘letter to Editor, africanheraldexpress‘ -

My name is Simon Mottershead, and I am a South African citizen, born in Cape Town in February 1978.

I am writing to you to see if it is possible to gain some media support for my plight in the Dominican Republic?

Please be kind enough to read a brief description of my situation below, and let me know whether you may be able to help me?

I left SA to travel to South America in April 2011. I then went on to the Dominican Republic, where I took up a dive instructor course. I got my dive qualification, but 3 weeks later I was involved in a motorbike accident.

I was returning from the dive centre on a colleague’s motorbike when we were hit by a car on the wrong side of the road. My colleague was killed and I was sent to hospital with a fractured hip, broken femur and fractured tibia/fibula, all of the left leg.

When I arrived at the hospital (private clinic), I was treated straight away for my shin (tib/fib) injuries, as the bone was out of the skin. I waited another 72h for the equipment to arrive for my other injuries.

After that op, I was put in a private room, and the hospital slapped me with a $23 000 bill!

Unfortunately, I was travelling without travel insurance, so I needed to get legal representation to help me.

My first lawyers, the same lawyers as the deceased, did nothing to help me, as I lay in the hospital bed for 3 weeks, with the hospital getting angrier by the day, as their bill was not getting paid. Eventually, after threats from the clinic about non-treatment, I fired my lawyers and took 2nd representation from a different company.

My family in South Africa is not rich enough to afford my hospital bill, as this amounts to roughly R180 000!

The money for the bill was supposed to be coming from the lawsuits with the insurance company and the driver respectively.

My new lawyers managed to get me released from the hospital, but not before the hospital had withdrawn all services, including food, fresh linen, air con, and any medical help, for over a week! I found myself in a situation of being forced to sign a contract with the clinic saying that I was responsible for all the bills. All dealings with anyone concerned with my situation from the beginning, was only handled in Spanish, which I speak little of, and the contract was only presented to me in Spanish. My lawyers threatened to walk out on me if i did not sign the contract.

I had no realistic choice, so, I did.

After leaving the clinic, I have relied on my family for money to pay for a house to live in, a nurse to look after me, and food to keep me alive, as well as trips to the hospital for medical visits, etc. These costs have already amounted to many thousands of dollars extra.

Normally, this would all be covered by the insurance pay outs. Unfortunately, my first lawyers did not want to tear up my contract, and instead, demanded $4 000 for services rendered, even though they had done nothing to help me in the 3 weeks they were representing me. Now, 2 months later, my present lawyers are screwing me over as well.

I have attained an orthopaedic specialist’s services in South Africa to check all my xrays, as I do not trust the medical work here in the Dominican Republic. According to him, after looking over everything, I will need another operation of my tib/fib fracture if I am to walk properly again! They have done a very bad job of repairing the fractured bone, and I can forget about an active life in the future if I do not have this op. The costs of this in South Africa are in the region of R150 000!

The clinic’s lawyer was here to visit me 2 weeks ago, and demand her money, saying that she had visited the driver and he said he had paid me money to give to the hospital. I knew nothing about this, so enquired to my lawyers what was going on? They apparently knew nothing either!

2 weeks later, they have told me that my case with the driver is flimsy at best (originally it was a guaranteed pay out) and they don’t think they will proceed with it, and that my case with the insurance company might take up to another year to settle. At the beginning of January they told me they were sitting down with lawyers from both cases, and that this would be settled soon…

They won’t answer my calls or return my messages either.

I now find myself in a situation where I am stuck in this country with a massive hospital bill, an injury that was not repaired properly, 2 sets of lawyers that are both creating illegal deals behind my back, and no way to get home!

The legal system here is an absolute disgrace, so I have no way of ever proving, or even finding out for sure what has happened with any money I should have received through my lawyers! The corruption here is everywhere, and I have no way of obtaining fair legal representation here!

In 2 months, my 6 month contract with the hospital expires and then they will come for their money. Which I do not have. Or am possibly never likely to have if I stay here and cannot walk properly again!

I am extremely worried about my situation, and am asking you please to hear my case, and possibly to run a story about it in your newspaper and try get the government or somebody involved to try get me home where I can recover, and then go about paying the clinic back.

I do not know who else to turn to. I have spoken with the SA embassy in Puerto Rico, as there is not one here in the DR, but they told me they could not help me, and to pay the hospital. This is impossible for me without proper rehabilitation, so that I may get back to work and pay for this.

I don’t know what you can do for me, but I am in a pretty desperate situation at the moment. The funds from my parents are slowly drying up, and I don’t know how much longer I will be able to survive out here, even just at basic living costs. I can’t afford a physiotherapist to help me regain mobility in my joints even, so I am really battling here.

If you have any information that may help, or if you can help and you need more information from me, please feel free to contact me anytime at injuryhell@gmail.com

If you would like to see a full description of everything since the accident, please check out http://injuryhell.blogspot.com/

Yours sincerely

Simon Mottershead

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