Friends raise $220k in 24 hours for seriously ill restaurateur

A seriously ill Brisbane restaurateur Andrew Park will be flown back to Australia after friends raised more than $200,000 in less than a day to fund the emergency evacuation.

Brisbane restaurateur Andrew Park will be flown back to Australia after friends raised more than $200,000 in less than a day to fund the emergency evacuation. Picture: Steve Pohlner

Popular Brisbane restaurateur Andrew Park, who suffered a serious medical incident in Thailand last week, will be flown back to Australia after friends raised more than $200,000 in less than a day to fund the emergency evacuation.

Mr Park had a diabetic episode in Thailand, went into cardiac arrest and had to be resuscitated, during which he sustained a brain injury, the impact of which is still unknown.

His condition is now stable, but he remains unconscious in a Bangkok hospital.

Friends put together a hastily arranged fundraising effort on mycause for Mr Park, a former honorary Queensland consul for Thailand and an ex-adviser to former foreign minister Alexander Downer. That appeal went out on Wednesday with the ambitious goal of raising $250,000 to get him home. By Thursday morning, it had already raised $220,000.

A medical evacuation has been arranged through Lifeflight and those costs are already covered through the campaign. Mr Park is then expected to have a long recovery.

Andrew Park and Wasana at Jumbo Thai in 2022.

“Andrew is the sole bread winner for the family and understandably, they are completely devastated by the event and the prospects of what lies ahead,” his friends have written on mycause. “He is a man who would be the first to turn up to help a friend when the chips were down. The first one to call you to celebrate your wins, and the one standing next to you trying to make you laugh when you needed to be cheered up.

“Andrew has touched so many lives, and we understand that everyone wants to show their support, and the family are most grateful. But we need to get Parky back to Brisbane.”

Unfortunately, the family’s insurance does not cover the intensive care hospital treatment in Bangkok, or the patient transport to bring him home. “The team at Lifeflight have generously offered to provide this delicate movement, however, the family needs our support to access these intensive care aeromedical support services,” his friends wrote.

Mr Park ran the popular Thai Jumbo restaurant in Brisbane’s CBD with his chef wife Wasana for a number of years before being sold to Stephen St Baker, the scion of energy billionaire Trevor St Baker. The couple have two teenage sons.

The eatery became a popular haunt of Brisbane’s political and business elite, with regular diners including Clive Palmer, Peter Dutton and Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner. “People like it because we are located upstairs, so it’s a bit of a bolthole,” Mr Park said in 2022.

Originally published as Friends raise $220k in 24 hours for seriously ill restaurateur