A Dundee woman who was left stranded in Bulgaria after a “nightmare” holiday leg break is set to come home.
Ann Stupart slipped and fell, breaking her femur, while on holiday with nine family members in Sunny Beach.
The 73-year-old, who has dementia, has been hospitalised in Burgas since September 20.
She initially wasn’t allowed to fly home with the injury and her family had issued a plea for help to fund an air ambulance for £25,000.
However, Ann has now been given clearance to fly and will return to Dundee on Saturday.
Her family say they will need to pay £9,000 for a nurse to take the trip with her.
Doctors in the Black Sea coastal city told the family, who come from the Ardler area of Dundee, that she only had a 30% survival chance if operated on.
The reason behind the decision stemmed from Ann’s heart problems — including angina and coronary heart disease.
She has recently undergone two triple heart bypass surgeries, and doctors feared that she wouldn’t be able to live through the anaesthetic — ruling out any surgery.
Ann’s granddaughter Leighanne Nichol, who stayed in Bulgaria along with her 69-year-old granddad Alex, today told the Tele that they have been “crying tears of happiness” since they were given the news.
She said: “We are coming home on Saturday. It’s such a relief.
“We are so happy that she is going to be home — we will need to pay £9,000 for a nurse to fly with her, but that is much cheaper than the air ambulance would have cost.
“It’s a huge weight off of our shoulders because we didn’t know what we were going to do.
“My granddad is over the moon.
“He can’t wait to get her home. We all just can’t wait to get her back to the UK and getting the medical treatment that she needs.”
Leighanne and Alex feared they would run out of funds, saying that travel to and from the hospital was costing them £100 a day.
Leighanne said that Ann was now “doing OK” but still had a long road to recovery ahead.
The 27-year-old added: “Things are looking better now.
“She’s still in a bad way but at least we know that we will get her home now.
“We’ve been crying tears of happiness.
“All the other times we’ve been crying it hasn’t been anything to do with happiness.
“The whole thing has been an absolute nightmare.”
Leighanne added that the public response to Ann’s plight was “amazing” and she didn’t know how to thank everyone who donated.
The online funding page raised £1,146.
Ann’s local councillor Ian Borthwick also wrote to the Bulgarian Embassy in a bid to assist.