THE family of Marti Gorman who suffered a stroke while at a wedding in Portugal earlier this month have expressed their delight after she was discharged from hospital on Monday.
Iveagh woman Marti was flown from Portugal to the Royal Victoria Hospital on Saturday following a monumental fundraising effort which raised over £40,000.
Speaking to the Andersonstown News, Marti's cousin Laura said that she is making progress and that doctors are happy with her.
"She is talking and walking although she is dragging her left hand side. They have said that the big bleed from the second stroke wasn't dispersing as quickly as they would have liked it to as the body absorbs the blood.
"We couldn't thank Dr Enda Kerr at the Royal enough. Because I work in the hospital, I had his contact details and he was able to speak to the stroke team in Portugal and get a lot of information before she was flown home.
"The air ambulance team also couldn't have done a better job and she was so comfortable the whole way home. Marti said that they had plenty of craic and couldn't have done enough for her.
"In total we raised just over £41,000. GoFundMe take a percentage of that so we ended up with just over £39,000."
HOME: Marti Gorman was flown from Portugal on Sunday
Laura told us that while they were in Portugal and trying to raise the money to fly Marti home, hackers tried to access her GoFundMe account and change the log-in details so that they couldn't access the funds.
"When we got that sorted and got the money, the cost of the air ambulance was £22,460. Now we are just waiting for the hospital bills to come through. Marti is also going to donate the £5,000 back to the Kevin Bell Repatriation Trust and she will donate money to Chest, Heart and Stroke.
"We would like to thank everyone who donated – we had donations from Australia and England. We are just elated because we were so worried.
"When we arrived at the hospital there was a doctor waiting for us and they told us that her parents and children needed to be there because the first 72 hours would be critical.
"The Portuguese people were fantastic. From the staff in the hospital to the people who lent me a car to get to and from the hospital. They also drove three and a half hours to Fatima to get her holy stuff which we could bring to the hospital to her and the day after we placed them under her pillow she was sitting up talking."
Marti will continue her rehabilitation at home with daily visits from the district nurse and an Occupational Therapist.
