By Imy Brighty-Potts
A family is desperately trying to raise £200,000 to bring their daughter home after she suffered a traumatic brain injury while cycling in Spain after a car ran her off the road.
Lauren Rauseo, a student at Stonehill College in Easton, was on holiday in Mallorca when she was smashed into a wall and left with devastating injuries including a traumatic brain injury, broken clavicle, broken hip, and a punctured lung.
The Massachusetts student was studying in Paris and is now in a medically induced coma as her family searches for a way to raise the £200,000 needed to fly her home to a specialist pediatric ICU trauma unit in Boston for treatment.
"She's pretty banged up. She's got a traumatic brain injury, broken clavicle, broken hip, punctured lung," Lauren's father Dave Rauseo, who is by her side in Spain, told Boston 25 News.
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Despite this, Rauseo has shared that his daughter is showing small signs of improvement and puts it down to the prayers and support the family is receiving.
"The prayers are working because we just left the hospital and she grabbed my hand and she was able to listen to her mom and open her eyes for her mom," he told the press.
"My goal now is to get my kid home," he explained, referring to the necessary medical flight with a huge bill attached.
"I just wanted to take a minute and thank everyone from the bottom of my heart for the support," he said.
Adventurous Lauren was an exchange student in Paris and had taken a weekend trip to the Spanish island of Mallorca.
A GoFundMe has been established to help Lauren's family meet the "staggering" costs of the flight and other medical needs that the injured girl will have.
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The page had raised more than £90,000 toward its £200,000 goal by Saturday afternoon.
A family friend set up the fundraiser, and described Lauren as "a vibrant and compassionate young woman with dreams as wide as the ocean."
The accident "has left her in a critical condition," they explained. "They hope "we can help bring this beautiful soul back home, where she belongs, surrounded by those who love her most."
Lauren's classmates have expressed their shock following the accident, sharing their concern for the girl. "When I got the news it was just horrible," a friend and fellow Junior at Stonehill told Boston 25. "She is the last person on earth to ever deserve something like that."
