Gravely ill Alex Shorey lands in Brisbane on mercy flight after poisoning

A gravely ill University of Queensland student, who unwittingly ingested rat poison while on an overseas exchange, has touched down in Brisbane after his family raised $200,000 for the flight.

The gravely ill Toowoomba man who unwittingly ingested rat poison in Taiwan touched down in Brisbane late on Wednesday night.

Alex Shorey’s Medevac flight landed in Brisbane at 10:15pm after stops in Darwin and Mt Isa.

Medical teams and airport staff took 25 minutes to prepare to transfer him to a Medical Rescue ambulance on the tarmac before he was driven to hospital to undergo further treatment.

Australian Alex Shorey arrives back in Australia on a Medical extraction flight from Taipei. Picture: David Clark

Mr Shorey, a marketing and language student on a scholarship exchange program has spent weeks fighting for his life in a Taipei hospital after he was inadvertently poisoned with Super Warfarin – a highly toxic rat poison.

Mr Shorey’s family raised over $200,000 to charter a specialised medical evacuation to fly the critically injured 24-year-old back to Australia to access potentially life saving toxicology treatment.

The emergency medical flight on the tarmac at Brisbane Airport. Picture: David Clark

Mr Shorey’s condition meant he could not fly commercially due to necessary high-pressure oxygen and the support of a specialised medical team to keep him alive.

His medical evacuation had been cancelled four times prior as his condition continued to deteriorate.

An ambulance waiting for Alex Shorey to get off the flight at Brisbane Airport. Picture: David Clark

Mr Shorey’s brother Jean-Luc Shorey, 26, said his brother fell ill on his birthday, before becoming seriously ill on April 24.

“It started out as a nosebleed and blood in his urine so we weren’t really sure what it was at first,” he told the Toowoomba Chronicle on April 29.

“The longer it took to diagnose, he was getting his kidney, liver, lungs, and heart damage.”

He said their father, Toowoomba doctor Stephen Shorey, raced overseas to assist in his son’s treatment.

“Because the blood had perforated his muscles he started getting black spots all over his body as the blood seeped into his muscles.

“All his symptoms were very strange.”