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A New Zealand grandmother’s visit to family in��Australia��has turned into a nightmare after an infection left her incapacitated and unable to return home.��

The family of Sui Manase now faces a bill of up to $100,000 for a repatriation flight from the Australian outback to Auckland.��

Manase, 67, travelled to Australia in November for a family wedding and had planned to stay with her daughter’s family in rural��Queensland��for a month.��

But an infection led to a series of��health��complications which have left her in a near-vegetative state.��

“I don’t know what to do,” her daughter Sepa Sala told the��Herald. “She’s trapped in her body in a country that’s not her home.”��

Sala said her mother was immunocompromised but otherwise fit, healthy and “fiercely independent”. She worked in security and lived in her own home in Mangere Bridge.��

After attending the wedding in��Melbourne, Manase flew to her daughter’s home in Cloncurry, an outback town 1700km west of��Brisbane.��

She was fatigued but her family put it down to her travel and busy schedule. However, over the next few days she became increasingly lethargic and delirious.��

Manase was hospitalised in Cloncurry on November 22, and doctors discovered she had a urinary tract infection (UTI). The infection led to sepsis, and she was transferred to intensive care in nearby Mt Isa then flown in an induced coma to a larger hospital in Townsville.��

Because of her reduced immunity, a common cold developed into pneumonia and a cold sore led to a form of encephalitis, which is an inflammation of the brain. That has left her unable to speak, walk or feed herself.��

“We haven’t seen her for five years,” Sala said. “And … we didn’t even get a week with her. She arrived Friday and was in the hospital by the Tuesday.��

“And it was everyday common ailments. A UTI, a common cold and then a cold sore, just created a perfect storm of catastrophe for my mum.”��

Reciprocal health care between New Zealand and Australia means she is able to remain in a rehabilitation unit in Townsville for 35 days before the family will have to start paying. At that point, they will be charged around $75 a day plus accommodation costs.��

They believe her best chance of recovery is to return home, where she will be supported by her “village” in Mangere Bridge.��

Manase was immunocompromised but otherwise fit and healthy, her family said. She still worked and lived an independent life before her illness.��

Manase had travel insurance but has been told that this does not cover a repatriation flight. Her credit card insurance also did not apply to her situation.��

The family cannot get access to her bank account or finances because she is unable to hand over power of attorney, though they have engaged a lawyer to assist them.��

Sala said the NZ Consulate advised her that they could not help her mother, but that families in a similar position to them had successfully used crowdfunding to pay for a flight.��

The family believes a medically-assisted flight, with a transfer in Brisbane, will cost up to A$100,000. A����has so far collected $2650 in donations.��

“We will live in cattle country, there are a lot of wealthy people here,” Sala said. “But they don’t have a spare $100,000.”��

Sala said her mother was most responsive when a family member was by her bedside, opening her eyes and communicating with raised eyebrows or a nod of the head.��

“I am grateful she is Earthside, but this is not living. I don’t want this to be the last memory that my children have of her.��

“For her wellbeing and for her recovery, she needs to come home.”��