‘Doesn’t have any teeth’: Mass. nurse seriously injured in Thailand faces long road to recovery

BOSTON — Zoe Rose says it’s been an emotional rollercoaster trying to get her daughter Sierra back home to Boston from Thailand.

“The emotions of like, we’ve been approved and oh my God, we’re going and oh my God, we’re making progress and then crash it comes tumbling down,” said Rose.

Rose just arrived in Thailand this weekend, where her daughter suffered serious injuries in a moped accident while on vacation there last week.

“Physically you can see that her nose is over to the side, physically she doesn’t have any teeth, her chin was kind of removed, but it’s now back on and her eyelid was gone, but that’s now on,” said Rose.

Rose is now with her daughter at a hospital in Krabi, where she says it’s open-air with no AC.

Much different than Salem Hospital, where Sierra works as an ICU nurse.

“There are pigeons walking around our room,” said Rose.

Now the goal is to get Sierra to a hospital in Bangkok for a facial surgery, which is more than 10 hours away by ambulance since doctors won’t allow her to fly right now because of the cabin pressure.

“They’re worried if she sneezes, blows her nose, or gets jolted that her face will collapse,” said Rose.

Rose says the big issue now is that Sierra lost her passport in the accident, and she’s not allowed to transfer to the next hospital without it, so she’s working with the Embassy to try to get that for her daughter as soon as possible.

“I don’t know if I’m going to have to leave my child here alone and fly to Bangkok and go get it and then fly back here to get her and then fly to Bangkok with the Medcraft. I have no idea how this is transpiring,” said Rose.

Meanwhile friends back home in Boston have created a Go-Fund-Me to try to help Sierra with all of these medical costs as she tries to get a Medflight back home to Boston after this surgery.

“She has to have surgery here, fine, have the surgery here, stabilize her face and get her home,” said Rose.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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