A British teen has been left with serious spinal injuries after crashing his quad bike in Greece and now his family could face a huge medical bill due to 'uncertainty' over their insurance.
Alfie Moses was on the island of Zante on his first lads' holiday celebrating his 18th birthday when he crashed last Monday.
The teen from Peterborough was rushed to a local hospital before being airlifted to Mediterraneo Hospital in Athens after doctors discovered the severity of his wounds.
Alfie had 12 fractured vertebrae in his spine, 11 broken ribs, a brain bleed, a punctured lung, a ruptured spleen and a broken shoulder.
Now the family faces a £17,000 bill for the treatment and Alfie's transport to the hospitals, but they are unsure whether they will be able to get it covered on insurance, as they said quad bikes are excluded on their policy.
Speaking from Athens, where her son is now being treated, his mother Kayley Posnett said Alfie 'nearly died' in the crash after he clipped a raised edge on the road at 40mph and was thrown off the quad bike.
Ms Posnett said: 'They really didn't know if he would survive or not.'
Alfie Moses, 18, crashed his quad bike on the Greek island of Zante and was left with serious spinal injuries, broken ribs, a broken shoulder, a brain bleed ruptured spleen and a punctured lung
Alfie's mother Kayley Posnett flew out to see her injured son the day after the accident. The family is now worried insurance will not pay the rising£17,000 bill for hospital transport and continued treatment
She described what happened: 'His friends that were in front of him said they were doing about 50 mph, and he was just behind them.
'He fell off the bike, he hit something, he went flying in the air and landed down a little cliffy bit, and the bike followed after him but didn't land on him, it just went off.
'He was taken to the Zakynthos hospital, and they stabilised him because he nearly died.
His devastated mother flew out to Greece to see her gravely injured son the next day.
She said: 'To see a child lying there in a bed and can barely talk and hardly look at you - he was in excruciating pain.
'It's probably the hardest thing I've ever had to deal with.'
Communication barriers between the doctors and the family made things even more distressing, she said, particularly because Alfie was initially unable to speak.
At first, doctors feared that Alfie could have developed a dangerous blood clot, but instead found that his spine was bruised by his cracked vertebrae.
Now he is recovering in the Greek intensive care unit in Athens and will need spinal surgery to stabilise his back, but this has been delayed until his lungs are strong enough.
He is also on an IV drip for antibiotics after doctors found lung contusions and are now monitoring him closely for infections.
Despite the severity of his injuries, his mother said he is now showing signs of improvement and has begun speaking again after initially being unable to talk.
'He is doing a lot better now,' she said, adding that he has been described by staff as a 'perfect patient' who remains positive.
Alfie was initially unable to speak after the accident, but he has since managed to talk and even crack jokes to his parents, albeit in a breathy, pained voice
Ms Posnett hit out against how easy it was for young people to hire these 'massive quadbikes' which can do 70mph on the island
Alfie had to be airlifted from Zante's local hospital in Zakynthos to the mainland Mediterraneo Hospital in Athens, racking up the bills for his care
She added: 'I can't thank this hospital enough because as soon as we got here, we had the ICU straight there speaking to us, saying that we've had a call, knowing he's going to arrive.
'We had a spinal expert. We had a brain expert. We had a neurosurgeon, all coming in at different times. He had a CT scan first. He had X-rays.
'And then they told us that the ribs would heal themselves, which was a positive sign.
'For me as a parent, I feel comfort that he's in the right place right now. And the fact that me and his dad go and see him and he cracks a few jokes and he's feeling positive.
'He couldn't speak to us before, and now he's able to speak. He's very breathless, but he's able to speak.'
Doctors say that Alfie's recovery will be long and complex, but that he could eventually leave the hospital in the coming weeks or months.
The family has begun a GoFundMe to help pay for the rising medical bills as Alfie must stay in hospital while he awaits surgery and recovers.
They have had to fund it without the help of their insurance, who they said do not cover quad bike crashes. So far, they have raised more than £20,400.
Ms Posnett spoke out against the safety standards around quad bike hire on the island and how it is too easy for young people to get their hands on these potentially dangerous machines.
She said: 'There's people every week dying of injuries on a quad bike.
'These companies are baffling these young adults, and they're haggling them down, and they're letting them have a quad bike for 50 euros - that is a dangerous piece of equipment.
'Alfie said if that quad bike was Euro 150, he would not have gone on it.
'But because he went to one, they said 150 euros, he went to another one, and they said 'you can have it for 50 euros' so he paid 50 euros for the quad bike.
'They think it's a fun thing to do. It's not fun. These pieces of equipment are dangerous. They're massive, massive quad bikes.
'They don't tell them that they don't steer well. You can't control them well. They do 70 miles an hour.
'These young adults don't have that type of brain to understand the dangers of driving on a road in another country.'
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