SA expat Carolyn McKay spends four weeks bedridden after serious Tuk Tuk crash in India

This Aussie expat endured a horror crash in New Delhi, India . . . only to discover her insurance had lapsed just hours beforehand.

After a Tuk Tuk crash in the heart of India’s largest city left her seriously injured, South Australian expat Carolyn McKay, 55, has faced a nightmare road to recovery.

Four weeks ago, on March 29, the former SA teacher who now lives in Sri Lanka was on her way through central New Delhi, when the Uber Tuk Tuk she was a passenger in ran a red light and crashed into a larger car.

“The driver saw the car and tried to swerve, but it was too late,” she told The Advertiser.

“I just gripped my hands on the side of the tuktuk, and I just yelled and swore because I could see it coming and then that moment of impact.”

Carolyn Mckay ended up in hospital in Delhi after a serious crash. Picture: Supplied

Ms McKay said she has since had to rely on the generosity of “complete strangers”, also footing the medical bills herself, after her travel insurance lapsed a day before the crash.

“I was in the government hospital by myself, in a ward with seven other people who had all been in horrible accidents and I was the only foreigner there” she said.

“The woman next to me, her name was Priyanka, was there looking after her four-year-old who was in a horrible accident.

“She would come and wash my face for me, she would come and sit on the bed and feed me and give me water to make sure I was getting fed and there were fluids going through me.”

Carolyn Mckay ended up in hospital in Delhi after a serious crash when her Uber driver ran a red light and crashed. Picture: Supplied

Ms McKay has been bedridden and unable to walk for four weeks, after sustaining a severely dislocated hip, and also fracturing both her femur and tibia in her right leg.

She spent two days in a public hospital, before being transported to a private one for five days, and is now in an Airbnb with someone caring for her.

Ms McKay was only supposed to be in New Delhi for a day and a half, and was travelling home to Sri Lanka, when she realised her travel insurance had been expired for more than 24 hours.

She said she applied for a new policy, but was put on a 48-hour wait for it to be approved.

“I went online to buy the new insurance policy, because I couldn’t extend the one that I had, and because I was already in the country, there was a 48-hour wait period,” she said.

Carolyn Mckay in a private hospital in Delhi, India, with friends and medical staff.

Ms McKay said all patients in public and private hospitals in India are required to have a support person with them, and she was lucky to have Priyanka and some friends help out.

“You need someone with you all day, and the hospitals expect you to provide that,” she said.

“You need somebody to fill in paperwork for you, you need somebody to ask for a specific medication and if the hospital doesn’t have it, somebody needs to go and buy it.”

Before the crash, she was six hours away from boarding a flight to leave India, but now has about $20,000 in medical expenses.

A GoFundMe has been organised by friends back home in SA, with just over $3,700 already raised.

Originally published as SA expat Carolyn McKay spends four weeks bedridden after serious Tuk Tuk crash in India