Appeal to fund Shropshire teacher's China hospital treatment

Emma Grainger has worked in China for two years

An appeal has begun to help a UK woman teaching in China who has been in a coma for four months after a medical procedure went wrong.

Emma Grainger, previously of Bridgnorth, Shropshire, underwent treatment in February following long-term problems with migraines. Her partner said they had thought it would be routine.

Her care now costs about £1,650 a day, Adrian Casey said.

More than £4,200 has been raised towards a £10,000 target.

Mr Casey, who launched it, said on his fundraising website he was having a bureaucratic "nightmare with Chinese lawyers and insurance companies, who are simply not paying what they should be".

He added there was "no such thing as the NHS in China, everything is private" and he could not afford paying for much longer, after a "routine" procedure went "horribly wrong".

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Emma's partner and fellow teacher Adrian Casey said he was struggling "with the upset"

The partner told the BBC Ms Grainger, originally from Worcester, had struggled to get medication to cope with migraines because she could not access a drug she knew worked well in the UK.

The teacher had been going to a clinic for investigative work and had been prescribed eight hydrocortisone injections, but "on number five... [I] can't put it any more bluntly, she died, she stopped breathing", Mr Casey said.

He stated he had been prevented from seeing her for seven weeks "with the claim that it's Covid controls, but the reality is they want their money".

Mr Casey also said she was fully insured with a "very reputable company", but "they capped it at £11,000 and her bill currently stands at 70".

Emma Grainger attended a clinic in China on 6 February

Speaking from their Shanghai home, her partner stated the plan over fundraising was to move her to a rehabilitation facility because the hospital system where she was "is just life support".

Mr Casey said: "I am struggling obviously with... the emotional upset of losing Emma and just the general complex bureaucracy."

Ms Grainger's treatment now costs about £1,650 a day, her partner says in his GoFundMe appeal