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Bungled Operation On Aussie In Indonesia Sparks Overseas Health Warning

Steven Didmon's family is desperately trying to get him home.
Steven Didmon is critically ill after a botched operation in Bali.
Facebook/Jeffrey Didmon
Steven Didmon is critically ill after a botched operation in Bali.

The family of an Australian man fighting for life after a botched operation in Indonesia is urgently trying to raise enough money to fly him home.

The bungled hernia procedure has left 39-year-old sub sea engineer Steven Didmon on a ventilator in Bali, prompting warnings from experts on the risks of undergoing surgery overseas.

The FIFO worker has reportedly been critically ill for three weeks after the operation in Bali went awfully wrong, with his family now desperately trying to raise enough cash to airlift him home.

On a GoFundMe page, the stricken man's family said the medical nightmare started when he "went for a simple Hernia operation at the Siloam Hospital in Bali" in June.

"Unfortunately things turned bad when they administered the epidural anaesthetic and my son Steven went into cardiac arrest," the page states.

"A team of doctors and support staff gave my son CPR for two hours whilst ventilating him, after two hours of his heart constantly stopping they finally stabilised him."

"Steven was on life support for a week and a half ... his kidneys are not functioning properly, his lungs were also not functioning properly and he was breathing assisted with a ventilator tube for 2 1/2 weeks."

Didmon's family wants to organise a medical evacuation to bring him back to Perth as soon as possible but at a cost of $47,500 they're asking for the public's help. So far over $20,000 has been raised.

"We are of the opinion that we've got to bring him home , his family's all here, other than his wife and we need him to be here where he's going to get first class attention," Steven's father, Jeffrey Didmon, told Channel Nine.

AMA WA president Dr Omar Korshi told Yahoo that travelers needed to be aware that many overseas hospitals were not up to the same standard as those in Australia.

"The risks go up and up and up," he's quoted as saying.

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