Daughter of man in coma after 30ft balcony fall on Lanzarote holiday begs ‘I want you home’

The heartbroken daughter of a British tourist left fighting for his life after falling from a 30ft balcony while on holiday has made an emotional plea to bring her dad home.

Dan Boyle, 31, was rushed to hospital in Lanzarote in late April when he fell from his third floor hotel balcony while holidaying with his girlfriend Ashleigh Lomas, 30.

It is thought that his lungs filled with fluid due to a chest infection which stopped his heart beating and subsequently made him tumble over the 30ft drop. The fall left him with a fractured skull and breast bone, a torn kidney and broken ribs, and he is now hooked up to masses of life-saving equipment in a neurological ward in Spain.

Doctors later discovered the dad-of-two had undiagnosed pneumonia and put him in an induced coma. The 31-year-old has since woken up but is largely unresponsive and the level of the brain damage he has suffered is still unclear.

A GoFundMe page has now been set up to help raise funds to bring Dan back to the UK on a medevac aeroplane. The family are desperately trying to raise £35,000 to bring Dan back to the UK and have already received more than £19,000 in donations.

In a touching personal message recorded for him, his eight-year-old daughter Daisy Boyle made an emotional plea for his safe return. She said: “I really miss you, Daddy. I want you home.”

Daisy’s mum Ashleigh said she discovered the heartbreaking message on Dan’s phone. She explained: “She basically sent him a video message, not knowing I had his phone. She said, ‘Hi Daddy. I hope you’re doing ok in hospital. I really miss you. Don’t worry, we’re going to find the funding to get you home with everybody.

“She also told him what she had done at school with swimming that day, and then she said ‘I really miss you, Daddy. I want you home.’”

Ashleigh, a barmaid, described the past few months following the accident as a “living nightmare”, as she shared pictures of their children Daniel, three, and Daisy with matching stencil arm drawings bearing the words “daddy”, as they try to raise awareness of his cause.

She said: “It’s been an absolute nightmare, a living nightmare. I would never wish something like this to happen to anybody, let alone ourselves. At the moment he’s been out of sedation for a full week. He’s classed as being in a vegetative state but obviously, he’s got time to come out of it.

“His eyes are open. His mouth is moving. He’s moving his arms and his legs, but he’s just not following commands when asked to do things. It’s just literally a waiting game. But there are no other things wrong at the moment. Everything is fine with him. We just need to get him home and around his family so he can hear familiar voices.”

The couple, who have been together for 12 years, arrived at the island off the coast of West Africa, on 23 April, with the accident happening just a day later. Ashleigh said they were both “laughing and joking” just half an hour before it happened.

She explained: “He was perfectly fine. We were in the pool together half an hour before, laughing and joking. He had a little cough but we didn’t think it was anything. It wasn’t a constant cough, it was just a little one, so you obviously wouldn’t think anything of it.”

Ashleigh said doctors believe Dan will have “really bad” damage to his brain, but they won’t know the full extent until he is fully awake. He will also need to take the specialist flight back to his home in Stockport, Greater Manchester, which is sadly not covered by their insurance.

Dan’s step mum, sales manager Paula Boyle, 42, said she had decided to sell her engagement ring to help get him back to the UK.  She added: “For me personally, it’s just a necessity. It’s a material object.

“It was about £2,000 when it was bought ten years ago, but what can an engagement ring give me when we can possibly get him back to his family? I’m not bothered because we care more about Dan than my engagement ring.”

Ashleigh added: “It would mean everything for him to come home, everything would be so much easier for everybody. He will be able to be around people who he knows and get the care that he needs.”