Plea to get Australian woman home after ‘devastating’ fall in Croatia
Family and friends of a Western Australian woman left fighting for life by a “devastating accident” in Croatia are pleading for help to get her home.
Ella Cutler, 25, was on holiday in Europe when tragedy struck in late August in Dubrovnik, a Dalmatian coast city beloved by tourists.
Police told local media at the time the woman and a 34-year-old Australian man fell 10 metres from a wall near Fort Lovrijenac, made more famous as a filming location for TV show Game of Thrones, in the suburb of Piles.
Ella’s brother Joshua Cutler said she suffered “multiple fractures of her skull and spine, several limbs and 12 ribs”.
The public servant was left fighting for life with two punctured lungs, “in a foreign hospital, far from everyone she knows and loves”.
Josh launched a GoFundMe fundraiser on Tuesday, in a bid to raise $100,000 to pay Ella’s medical expenses to date and another $400,000 to get her home by air ambulance.
“Ella is a much loved daughter, a sister to three brothers, a devoted public servant, a loving friend to many, and a kind soul to everyone she meets, regardless of their social standing or place in the world,” he said.
“Everyone who knows her will tell you about her calm and gentle energy, her love of furry creatures great and small, her selflessness in helping people, and her ability to make everyone she meets feel special.
“Ella has spent the last few weeks on a well-earned holiday overseas in Europe, meeting new people, making new connections, and spending time immersing herself in nature. Unfortunately her trip has been cut short by a devastating accident.”
Josh said doctors in Dubrovnik had “conveyed the importance of moving her to a bigger hospital with better facilities where she can receive specialised care vital for further recovery”.
Ella’s aunt Rebecca Cutler described her niece’s survival as a “miracle” but said the insurance company was denying her claim.”Right now Ella is in a foreign hospital with brain and spinal injuries and no way to get home,” she said, on Facebook.
“She can’t advocate for herself. My sister and nephew have left their jobs and flown to Europe and are trying to raise the funds to bring Ella home and be treated in an Australian hospital.
“It’s not a matter of putting her on a normal flight. Given her spinal injuries she needs to be med evacuated on a special plane.
“The entire situation has been shocking for my family and Ella has a very long road to recovery.”
In August, police spokeswoman Andrijana Biskup said an investigation at the scene did not point to a criminal offence.
She told the Dubrovacki Portal both were under the influence of alcohol; a blood-alcohol reading of 0.2 for the man and 0.3 for the woman.
Local media reported that the pair didn’t climb the wall but fell when the woman went to lean on the man.
Dr Ivan Bencic from Dubrovnik General Hospital told Croatian outlet HRT the man had fared better than his partner and had been operated on.
