A British influencer named Ashley Surcombe is reportedly in a critical condition in a South Korean hospital after being found unconscious in her apartment with a black eye and severe dehydration.
The 29-year-old from Gloucestershire was reportedly discovered by police on Monday after her worried parents contacted authorities through a friend when she stopped responding to their messages and calls.
Ms Surcombe, according to The Times, has been living in South Korean capital Seoul for the last five years, posting about her time in the country for her 465,000 followers on Instagram.
According to reports, she is currently in the intensive care unit (ICU) after suffering multiple organ failure. Her sister, Kat Surcombe, 33, an aerospace engineer, described the ordeal as “surreal”.
Speaking to The Times, she said: “I keep alternating between breaking down and trying to help my parents. It’s heartbreaking because she’s my little sister, and I just want her back home.”
The family said they last spoke with Ms Surcombe on Saturday, when she told her parents she “wasn’t feeling very well” and seemed “dehydrated and very confused”.
“Initially we were very concerned because she’d recently slipped in her bathroom and hit her head, which is why she got quite a nasty bruise on her eye, but that was a few weeks ago. The way she was behaving, my parents were understandably concerned,” said her sister.
When Ms Surcombe failed to respond to a previously scheduled call on Sunday evening, parents Karen and Nigel, both 64, reached out to friends in Seoul, who in turn contacted the police.
According to her sister and local news reports, the police managed to gain entry into her flat, where they found her unconscious and unresponsive on the bathroom floor.
“She was found unresponsive and unconscious on the floor; she didn’t have any broken bones, but she was severely dehydrated and has major organ failure,” Kat Surcombe told Mail Online.
Paramedics rushed her to the ICU on Monday, where she has reportedly gained consciousness, but remains under observation and undergoing tests after reporting pain in her head, back, and hands.
“[The doctors] said that she was severely dehydrated and she’s got organ damage but we don’t know the extent of the organ damage yet,” she said, adding that their father was already on his way to Seoul.
The family has launched a GoFundMe to help grapple with the escalating medical costs.
Kat Surcombe revealed that Ms Surcombe’s health insurance had recently lapsed, forcing their parents to pay a £3,000 deposit for her treatment upfront.
“They’ve had to put it on a credit card, they don’t have £3,000 pounds just lying around. The potential financial burden is just on another level. My parents are recently retired. If she spends the week in the ICU that’s about £10,000, they don’t have that type of money lying around.”
“My dad has already said they may have to sell their house, obviously the priority is Ashley, but they just don’t know how to cover the medical bills.”
Based on the information provided on the GoFundMe page, ICU care could cost up to £1,500 per day, with additional tests and general hospital stays pushing expenses even higher.
“My parents have recently retired, and as a family, we don’t have an abundance of money to cover these unexpected and overwhelming costs,” Kat Surcombe wrote on the GoFundMe page.
The family is aiming to raise £50,000 for Ms Surcombe’s treatment, and at the time of writing, had raised £6,840.
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