An American teenager is stranded in an Italian hospital after falling off a 60ft cliff and breaking is leg on a school trip to Europe.
Hayden Hill, 18, was walking to a beach outside Rome on Saturday with hisNew Hope High School senior class from Huntsville, Alabama.
He hopped a fence to take what he thought was a shortcut to the sand, but realized too late the fence was guarding a sheer drop.
Hayden survived but suffered adislocated hip, broken ankle and foot, and a 'small head injury', his mother Sharon Hicks said.
'The fact that he survived this fall is nothing short of a miracle,' she said.
Hayden Hill, 18, (pictured with his mother Sharon Hicks at his graduation)is stranded in an Italian hospital after falling off a 60ft cliff and breaking is leg on a school trip to Europe
He hopped a fence to take what he thought was a shortcut to the sand, but realized too late the fence was guarding a this sheer drop - and fell off the edge
'The community here calls him "the miracle boy" and they have gathered around us with so much support and kindness.'
However, Hayden is stuck in a small community hospital about 90 minutes drive from Rome where 'the language barrier is almost unbearable'.
'We ended up in a very low quality hospital (even the Italians say this),' Sharon explained in a Facebook post.
'And we got stuck with the one doctor here that hates Americans. I will probably hear this man's screaming in my nightmares for the rest of my life!'
Hayden's family want to get him home to the US as soon as possible so he can be treated there, and he may need more surgeries.
Sharon, in a series of updates, told how Hayden was cleared by a neurologist on Tuesday, but the orthopedic doctor was making leaving difficult.
'The ortho doctor 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 on Wednesday.
'That’s not going to happen.'
Hayden survived but suffered a dislocated hip, broken ankle and foot, and a 'small head injury'
Hayden during the trip to Europe in a photo posted by his mother a few days before his fall. 'I think he’s having the time of his life in Italy! And I think that Italian leather jacket might look good on mama too,' she wrote
Sharon said the Italian physician wanted an American doctor and nurse to come to Italy and accompany Hayden, on a stretcher, all the way home to Alabama.
The longer Hayden stays, immobilized, in hospital, the more his condition worsens and he is developing bed sores and is at risk ofpneumonia.
'Hayden needs to be in physical therapy out of this bed, out of a diaper, and sitting up so he doesn’t get pneumonia,' Sharon said.
'He has started coughing up dark brown mucus and he is getting a bed sore on his lower back.
'Hayden is not hooked up to any monitors, all his vitals are clear, we honestly just can not get the doctors to communicate with us in any way about helping us get out of here so we can go home for treatment.'
Sharon said her son wasn't even given a bedpan by hospital staff and was stuck in adult diapers flat on his back all day.
The US Embassy would provide a wheelchair and van to get Hayden to the airport and on to a plane, but only if they could find a flight - and be allowed to discharge him from hospital.
'If we can’t find a way to leave here and get home by Saturday we are going to at least transfer to a better hospital in Rome where more people speak English and he might receive better care,' Sharon wrote.
Hayden's family (pictured with his parents Chris and Sharon Hicks) want to get him home to the US as soon as possible so he can be treated there, and he may need more surgeries
The longer Hayden stays, immobilized, in hospital, the more his condition worsens and he is developing bed sores and is at risk of pneumonia
Hayden had at least one good moment in hospital when he met the first responders who rescued him from the cliff after he lay there in agony for an hour.
'This absolutely made Hayden’s day.. they even did a zoom call with all the other rescue men so they could see him too,' his mother said.
Hayden had travel insurance, but his family had difficulty interfacing it with the Italian health system, and the upfront costs of repatriation before reimbursem*nt could be tens of thousands of dollars.
Family friends are raising money back in the US to pay for the specialized medical flight across the Atlantic and home via Atlanta.
'The cost for Sharon to fly to Italy to be with her son was not cheap!' they wrote on the fundraiser.
'At this time, Hayden will more than likely need to be transported back to the states in a medical aircraft that will cost more than we could possibly imagine.
'The goal is to get Hayden back to the states no matter the means or the cost.'
