Andrew Frazer suffered serious head injuries in the alleged attack
Andrew Frazer, 43, from St Helens
The victim of an alleged attack while on holiday in Benidorm has had his “life taken from him,” his fiancée said. Andrew Frazer, 43, from Sutton, St Helens, travelled to Benidorm for his brother Ian’s birthday celebration on November 13.
But by 1am on November 14 – not even 24 hours after touching down in the popular resort – sister-in-law Claire Howard previously said Andrew was knocked unconscious in the street and taken to hospital with a head injury. As the stepdad-of-two did not have travel insurance, Claire said his wound was stapled and he was sent back to his hotel without a CT scan. The following day, his condition worsened and he was taken to another hospital, where a scan revealed a serious bleed on the brain.
A fundraiser set up to fund Andrew’s safe journey back to the UK raised more than £28,000 in three days. But his family was hit with further bad news as they were told his injury was “too severe” for the flight.
Instead, Andrew and his fiancée Carrie made a gruelling 27-hour journey in the back of a private ambulance, arriving back in Merseyside on November 28 last year. But against the odds, despite not being able to talk or walk when he arrived at Whiston Hospital, he was discharged on December 14 and is walking “completely fine”.
Speaking to the ECHO, Carrie confirmed he is speaking and reading now but he is yet to see a neurologist and the closest appointment she has been able to get at The Walton Centre is in May due to waiting lists. She said: “We’re no further on getting him anymore help.
Andrew Frazer, 43, from St Helens, was hospitalised in Benidorm with a bleed on the brain after being punched outside a nightclub(Image: Claire Howard)
“He’s not getting anywhere now. It’s only early in the recovery and he has come so far in such a short space of time, it’s amazing. We thought we were going to lose him at one point. We’re on the cancellations list so we just have to hope.”
The 48-year-old cleaning supervisor continued to explain how Andrew, who works at Liverpool John Lennon Airport, was asking to go to work, drive a car and help clear the snow in the recent bad weather. But due to him having having around a third of his skull missing, Carrie has been forced to stop him from doing some of the tasks he wants to do for his own safety.
She continued: “It’s like somebody taking your whole life away from you. Telling you that you can’t leave the house, you can’t go to work, you can’t drive your car. His life has just gone. He feels like himself but his brain isn’t quite there yet, he struggles with certain words and certain memories.”
Carrie said it is unclear as to whether or not Andrew will regain the mental ability he had before the alleged attack. Shortly after they arrived back in the UK, Spanish police arrested a 42-year-old man from Romania on suspicion of wounding in connection with the incident. He was released on bail pending an ongoing criminal probe after appearing before a judge in a behind-closed-doors court hearing where he denied being the person who assaulted Mr Frazer.