Distraught mother asks for prayers for critically ill son

A heartbroken mother yesterday urged people to pray for her son, who has been in a coma since falling from a building in Thailand last month.

Robbie Robinson, 32, who sustained a traumatic brain injury, is on a life support machine in a Bangkok hospital and doctors say he will not survive.

Martina Robinson, from Ashford, Co Wicklow, who is in Bangkok keeping a bedside vigil for her son, broke down during a interview with RTÉ’s Miriam O’Callaghan.

“It is love and prayer that will get him out of this. I really believe that and I have done all sorts of bargaining with God, every sort of deal I can do.”

Her son, the eldest of three grown-up children, had been staying with a friend in Bangkok and was returning to the apartment after a night out when he realised he had no key.

He used a swipe card to enter the building, went up to the fourth floor where his friend lives and after trying to wake him, stood on the balcony in an attempt to access an open window. He lost his footing and fell to the ground.

Ms Robinson said her son was now suffering from pneumonia and his kidneys had started to fail.

“We are just praying for a miracle. You know when it’s your kids, you just don’t want to let them go.”

She said medical staff at the hospital had been “very blunt” about her son’s condition. “They just think there is no hope for Robbie and they think we should let him go.”

She said the family believe that if they can get him home and have his family and friends around him they would get the miracle they have been praying for.

Ms Robinson said friends of the family have been helping raise funds.

“I am just trying to focus on Robbie and give him all my strength and try and get him to wake up, to even get strong enough to bring him home with a medical team.”