A Rangers fan is trapped in Seville after collapsing on the plane to Spain and has been banned from flying home by doctors.
Sandra Aitken, 44, had to be revived by airline staff after falling unconscious with a serious heart complaint as her plane landed at Seville Airport.
She was rushed to hospital where she has remained since – and was banned from leaving her hospital bed to watch the Europa League final.
Now she is pleading with her travel insurer to bring her home after Spanish doctors said she couldn’t leave hospital or fly home on a regular flight – only in an air ambulance.
Her insurer has told her it needs “more information” before agreeing to an air ambulance return flight to Scotland.
Sandra told the Record from her hospital bed: “I just want home, I don’t care about anything else. My family is worried sick.”
The Glaswegian added: “When I was in the ambulance they told me I would be coming to the hospital for a couple of hours for observations – it’s now been 10 days.
“I missed the Europa final. And it broke my heart on Saturday because I should have been at the Scottish Cup final as well – I had tickets for Hampden.
“I follow Rangers, that’s my only passion and I’ve missed two cup finals because of this.
“These are the first games I’ve missed in such a long time. I was crying my eyes out because I should’ve been at that game.”
Sandra jetted to Andalusia with daughter Samantha to see their beloved side play Eintracht Frankfurt.
They were due to watch the showpiece match with other fans at a special screening in the city.
But all they have seen in their 10 days in Seville is the inside of the city’s Hospital Universitario Virgen Macarena.
She said she is “desperate” to get home and blames insurer Staysure for her effectively being “held hostage”.
Sandra became unresponsive on a Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to Seville last Tuesday.
Airline staff were forced to use a defibrillator to revive her, believing she had passed away.
But she came to and was taken to hospital.
Sandra says she was officially discharged from the hospital on Monday, with medics saying she needed to get an air
ambulance back to Scotland.
But she said Staysure has yet to organise the transport, leaving her and Samantha sleeping in a hospital ward for five days after she was discharged.
She explained: “I had fallen asleep on the flight and my daughter couldn’t wake me up.
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“My arms flopped down and my eyes were rolling into the back of my head. My daughter said they shouted, ‘No pulse,’ and they used a defibrillator.
“They think it was a life-threatening arrhythmia and they’ve said I’m at high risk.
“The hospital said they can’t let me go because they’re liable if anything happens. I’m really desperate.
"Staysure just keeps messing me about.
"Every day they said they needed more information from the hospital, then on Thursday night they said they didn’t need any more.
“But although they said they are in talks with air ambulances about getting me back, they still couldn’t give me a timeframe for getting home.
“They’re supposed to specialise in people with pre-existing medical conditions – that’s why I have to go with them.”
Sandra said she was told it may be another week before she can be brought home.
She added: “I’m stuck here with my daughter. Obviously I’ve got a heart monitor on so I can’t go for a shower.
“My daughter can’t get a shower either. We’ve had the same clothes on for a week, we are stinking. It’s humiliating.
“I’m in a ward with other people, which is nothing like back home – there’s absolutely no privacy, it’s degrading.
“My daughter is missing her work because she can’t leave me over here by myself.”
However, Sandra added: “The hospital staff have been great.”
The Foreign Office said: “We are supporting a British woman and her daughter in Seville.”
Staysure said: “We have spoken to the customer’s family and we are doing everything possible to help resolve this issue.”
