Injured man stuck in Peru after attack
Shaun Mallet, who was left stranded in Peru after being mugged
THE family of a 41-year-old man who has been left stranded in a South American hospital after being mugged have spoken of their ‘disgust’ at the Foreign Office.
Shaun Mallet, from Stanton, suffered a slashed throat, wrist and feet, a punctured lung and head injuries when he was attacked in Peru on September 9.
He did not have travel insurance, leaving his family facing escalating medical bills that have already reached $7,000.
Deborah Green-Mallet, Shaun’s sister-in-law, said help from the British Embassy in Lima and the Foreign Office had not been forthcoming.
“All we want to know is who we pay hospital bills to,” she said.
“At the moment his friends out there are paying for them because the Foreign Office aren’t helping us and it’s disgusting, to be honest.”
An air ambulance to carry Shaun from the hospital in Pucallpa to Lima, will cost the family $1,500 alone.
It is believed that Mr Mallet was attacked after venturing out alone from the guest house he was staying in near Pucallpa, a city near the Amazon rainforest.
He was discovered by a passer-by and ‘lucky to be alive’, according to Mrs Mallet.
His brother, Michael, 39, flew out to Peru yesterday.
The family had asked for someone from the Foreign Office to meet him in Lima to offer assistance, but officials said there was no-one available.
Shaun’s mother, Margaret, first found out about his condition through Facebook.
She said the situation had taken its strain on the family, with her husband, Terry, being taken ill last week.
She added that she had stressed the importance of travel insurance to her son, but that he had ‘been silly’.
“He has probably got away with it lots of times in the past and was trying to save a bit of money,” she said.
Mr Mallet, an experienced traveller according to his mother, had visited Peru last year and makes regular trips to Guatemala, where he owns a small coffee plantation.
Friends have now set up a bank account to try and raise money for Mr Mallet.
Mr Mallet had been due to fly home on September 26, his mother’s birthday.
A Foreign Office spokesman confirmed a British national was in hospital in Lima having been assaulted.
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Weather for Bury St Edmunds
Wednesday 19 June 2013
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