A British soldier faced a hefty bill after suffering serious injuries falling from a waterfall in Thailand while taking photos as a tourist hotspot. His femur and skull were shattered in the incident.
Liam Gibson, 21, was visiting the idyllic Na Muang Waterfall 2 when he slipped and tumbled onto a rock ledge metres below.
The soldier, a member of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, was left in a critical condition for hours, drifting in and out of consciousness due to the excruciating pain. Medical personnel faced challenges reaching him at the remote location on Koh Samui.
For more than two hours, his girlfriend Lucy Baldwin, 20, clung to Liam’s body as he was stranded inches from a 100m drop.
The devastated beautician told MailOnline: ‘When I saw the state he was in, I was just in sheer panic.
‘I had to hold him so he wouldn’t slip further down the waterfall with my arms and legs wrapped around him, sitting in a pool of his blood.
‘He had bone sticking out of his leg, you could see his skull. It was absolutely horrific’.
After five hours, the soldier, known for his vibrant personality, was transported to a local hospital. There, he underwent emergency surgery, including three major procedures and numerous blood transfusions, to address his severe injuries.
Liam Gibson, from Hartlepool, was visiting the idyllic Na Muang Waterfall 2 when he slipped and tumbled onto a rock ledge metres below
His childhood sweetheart, Lucy Baldwin, had to wrap her arms and legs around him so he wasn’t dragged further down the waterfall while he passed in and out of consciousness
The waterfall is considered a popular tourist spot and a TikTok favourite, despite claiming the lives of two tourists in 2019
Lucy explained: ‘The doctors discovered he had completely shattered his femur in three pieces, broken his right arm, shattered his left hand, shattered his eye socket, cheek bone, nose and skull and had multiple open wounds to the bone on his left leg.’
Liam, from Hartlepool, has been recovering slowly in hospital over the last three weeks but can not have the reconstructive surgery on his leg that he needs until he reaches England.
With medical bills piling up and a medjet needed to bring him home, the childhood sweethearts are faced with a bill of more than £100,000.
The serviceman is now stranded in Thailand and the couple, who were only a week into their month-long backpacking trip, have set up a a GoFundMe to try bring him home.
‘The medical bills are just so expensive and obviously the longer he’s there the more they’re going up which is why its so urgent to bring him home,’ Lucy said.
Recalling what became ‘the worst experience of my life’ started off as the ‘perfect day’, she says.
‘We had rented a moped and was just exploring the island when I saw the waterfall on TikTok,’ Lucy said.
‘There was loads of families at the waterfall and Liam was taking pictures when I realised he had been gone just a bit too long.
‘Funny’ Liam joined the army straight after school, where has served for five years, and frequently does charity events to raise money for men’s mental health
The desperate couple, who met in school when they were 13, put off making the fundraiser as long as possible because ‘we’re not the kind of people to be asking for money’
‘It was absolutely horrific – when you see someone you love in that state, you just go into full survival mode,’ the beautician said
Liam has been recovering slowly in hospital over the last three weeks but can not have the reconstructive surgery on his leg that he needs until he reaches England
‘Funny’ Liam joined the army straight after school, where has served for five years, and frequently does charity events to raise money for men’s mental health
‘I was shouting and shouting for him when I spotted him on on the rock ledge passed out.
‘I tried to climb down and reach him but I couldn’t so I started screaming for help – in the end a local Thai boy helped reach him.’
Lucy believed that if he had fallen all the way down the waterfall, Liam would have instantly died from the 100m drop – which was the fate of two tourists years earlier.
When she finally got to him, she said ‘there was just so much blood everywhere especially considering we were sitting in a waterfall with the water washing it away constantly’.
She continued: ‘It just showed how fast he was bleeding out.
‘It was absolutely horrific – when you see someone you love in that state, you just go into full survival mode.
‘All I could do as we waited for help was to keep talking to him and try and keep him with us.
‘We ended up tying his leg with a T-shirt to stop the bleeding but Liam kept thinking he was going to die because no one was showing up.
‘But obviously it had been so long even I doubted if someone was coming, if this was it.
‘It was awful – the worst thing I have ever experienced, watching him be in absolute agony, just excruciating pain.’
The Foreign Office said they ‘are aware of a British man who is hospitalised in Thailand and stand ready to provide assistance’.
Five hours after the fall, Liam reached a local hospital where they rushed him into emergency surgery for three major operations, multiple blood transfusions and gave him antibiotics
Doctors said Liam had shattered his eye socket, cheek bone, nose and scull and had multiple open wounds as well as severely breaking his leg
‘I had to hold him so he wouldn’t slip further down the waterfall with my arms and legs wrapped around him, sitting in a pool of his blood,’ his childhood sweetheart said
The Tourism Authority of Thailand and local police have also been contacted for comment.
Shockingly, Liam is not the only person to have been horrifically mutilated by visiting the popular tourist spot.
In 2019, two holidaymakers both died after slipping on the rocks of the enchanting waterfall.
David Rocamundi Conesa, 26, had been with seven other friends hiking the 0.6mile trek to the top of the waterfall in the July of that year when the Barcelona resident slipped.
Police believed he was trying to clamber down over the wet surface of the boulders and rescue workers found David’s lifeless body lying in a pool between boulders near the bottom of the waterfall later that night.
He had a six-inch long wound on his head and was pronounced dead at the scene but was only recovered the next morning because it was too dark to reach the area.
David, in blue shorts and white vest, posed looking down over the water as it splashed over the rocks
David’s friends told police that after taking pictures at the top of the waterfall, he left the group and decided to walk back down on his own
David Rocamundi Conesa, 26, had been with seven other friends hiking the 0.6mile (1km) trek to the top of the idyllic Na Muang 2 waterfall in Koh Samui on Saturday afternoon
Friends of the victim are comforted as rescue workers recover the body of David
In that November, French tourist Bastien Palmier, 33, also fell to his death after ignoring warning signs to try and take a selfie at the beauty spot.
Palmier was standing near the 260ft high waterfall’s cliff edge while either taking a selfie, or trying to get into position for a selfie, when he slipped and fell to his death on the sharp, wet rocks and into the pool below.
Police and rescue workers retrieved the tourist’s body, which was floating face-down in the water.
The Frenchman’s forehead had been split open and his body was covered in cuts and bruises from the fall. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Palmier’s friend, Thomas Mechin, told police he had invited his ‘childhood friend’ on a dream holiday to see him at his new home in Thailand.
He said that they had reached the top of the waterfall when ‘Bastien wanted to go further into the prohibited zone that was near the cliff edge’.
Bastien Palmier was with a friend visiting the Na Mueang 2 waterfall on the island of Koh Samui in Surat Thani when he fell to his death
Na Mueang Rescue Unit on the island of Koh Samui, Thainland, taking the body of a French tourist up the 260ft high Na Mueang 2 waterfall
Bastien Palmier fell to his death after ignoring warning signs and climbing over a rope to take a selfie, his friends told Thai police
The French tourist was declared dead at the scene when rescue workers found his body with a head injury and saw he was covered in cuts and bruises from the fall
Thomas told police he ‘warned him to stay away but he didn’t listen’ and he ‘crossed the rope that was closing off the area’.
Palmier was ‘trying to take a selfie on the edge of the waterfall’ when he slipped and fell, Thomas told officers.
Police said that retrieving the body was made more difficult by the slippery rocks but after three hours the rescuers were finally able to carry him out of the waterfall by tying him to a stretcher, which was dragged up with ropes.
Police Lieutenant Colonel Phuwadol Wiriyawarangkul the spot where Palmier fell is roped off and there is a sign warning tourists of the danger.
