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A mother’s plea
Photo
Dunai
By christine keeling
youngstown
A mother is looking for financial help after her daughter’s hiking trip took a horrific turn.
Emese Dunai, 31, was supposed to return to the United States in July after she left Portland, Ore., in December 2010 to go hiking through Thailand, Malaysia, Nepal and Indonesia. But a scuba-diving accident June 7 on the coast of Banda Aceh, Indonesia, left the Chaney High School graduate suffering from secondary parkinsonism, due to lack of oxygen.
The neurological syndrome impairs the 31-year-old’s speech, vision and ability to walk and main-tain balance, and she has been diagnosed with post- traumatic stress disorder.
“She can’t work,” said Dunai’s mother, Ildiko Richardson of Youngstown. “She can hardly walk.”
Medical reports from Bumrungrad International Hospital in Bangkok show that neurologists believe Dunai will be unable to work for at least a year, even if she were to get appropriate treatments.
Richardson said she didn’t learn about the accident until three or four days after it happened.
“When I found out, I almost had a nervous breakdown,” Richardson said. “It is terrible for a parent.”
She wasn’t able to be at her daughter’s side because she couldn’t afford the trip. She suffers from medical problems, too, she said.
Information about Dunai’s recovery has been limited to Skype and social-network websites and often comes from a hiker friend Dunai met one month before the accident.
Csonger Wildmann, 27 of Switzerland, said by email that he started a support page for Dunai because she was unable to use a laptop to answer personal messages and he wanted to keep her supporters informed.
He was on his way to Australia when he was notified about the accident and returned to make sure she was being treated properly. Although, he doesn’t look at caring for Dunai as a sacrifice, he said he can’t do it much longer because he is in debt.
Wildmann said he spent almost $10,000 of his own money to cover Dunai’s medical care and living expenses while he’s been away from home. A donation website he set up to help Dunai raised $6,354.
Richardson does not know how the money raised is being spent, but she is more worried about being able to provide for her daughter when she returns to the states after the holiday.
She set up the Hiking Back for Emese Dunai Fund at Huntington Bank.
“Every time I talk to my daughter she says she wants to come back to the United States,” said Richardson. “I want for my daughter to get medical treatment wherever she wants, so she can have a quality life and contribute to society.”
She said her daughter wants to be an advocate for people who have experienced this type of disability, since she most likely will never be able to return to her job as an occupational therapist.