Teen stuck in Italy after falling off 60-foot cliff as family struggles to get him proper care, out of country
The family of an Alabama “miracle boy” who fell off a 60-foot cliff during a dream Italian vacation claims the teen has been living in horrid conditions in an Italian hospital as doctors refuse to discharge him.
Hayden Hill, 18, was traveling across Europe with his New Hope High School senior class following their May graduation when his vacation turned into a nightmare.
Hill, from Huntsville, Ala., plummeted off a 60-foot cliff while looking for an entrance to a beach in Rome with a friend on June 8, according to WAFF 48.
The recent grad had jumped over a wall, believing it would get them to the beach faster, when he took the near-fatal fall down to the shore below.
Hill was stranded for over an hour before the Italian coast guard could rescue him and rush him to a community hospital outside Rome.
His family said he was treated for a dislocated hip and femur and had extensive injuries to his ankle and foot.
Hill has also undergone multiple surgeries since the accident.
“The fact that he survived this fall is nothing short of a miracle,” a GoFundMe page set up for the teen read. “In Italy, he is called ‘The Miracle Boy.’”
Due to the severity of his injuries, Hill requires around-the-clock care and treatment.
Italian doctors refused to discharge Hill from the hospital unless he was transported back to America on a medical aircraft equipped to care for him.
Even worse, his family claims the conditions he is subjected to in the hospital while he recovers have been appalling.
“Right now in Italy, they won’t let him move, they won’t let him sit up, they’re not letting him do anything. They won’t even give the kid a bedpan,” the teen’s sister, Hannah Hill, told the outlet.
“Now, they’re worried that he’s getting a bedsore on his bottom. He’s starting to cough up stuff. So, we’re worried that he’s going to start getting pneumonia.”
Since the accident, Hill’s mother, Sharon, arrived in Italy to be by her son’s side while they try to find a way to bring him home.
However, relations with the hospital’s medical staff have been less than friendly since her arrival.
“The ortho dr came in screaming and yelling at everyone and will not release Hayden until a US doctor walks in here shakes his head and says I’ll take this boy off your hands and be responsible for him now,” she wrote in a Facebook post Wednesday.
“That’s not going to happen.”
Hill’s mother shared that if they can’t get him on a flight back to the US by Saturday, they will try “to at least transfer to a better hospital in Rome where more people speak English and he might receive better care.”
“Socialized healthcare is different people! Not bad necessarily but not anything like home,” she wrote.
Sharon Hill also confirmed that her son is “coughing up dark brown mucus” and that he’s been made to wear diapers and they are “hoping” he will get a bedpan.
His sister says the US Embassy has offered her brother a wheelchair and van to transport him to the hospital if they can find a flight to take him back to Alabama, but the cost of a medical flight is reportedly more than the family can dish out.
“If we can get him to the plane, we can get him on the plane, we’re not worried about it. Getting him to a hospital, I’m not worried about that either, just getting him out of there and getting him that care,” Hannah Hill told WAFF 48.
“The goal is to get Hayden back to the States no matter the means or the cost,” his GoFundMe page reads.
