Over the long Easter weekend, Singaporean former police officer Mirkhan Ariffin was involved in a motorbike accident while on holiday in Bali with his wife. The duo, both in their 40s, were thrown off the vehicle on Sunday afternoon when he lost control, causing him to break four ribs and fracture his neck and right collarbone. His wife sustained minor skin injuries.
According to The Straits Times, Mirkhan underwent surgery at Sanglah General Hospital and fell into a coma soon after. His three daughters, who all currently live in Australia, flew to Indonesia to see their father.
On Tuesday, one of his daughters put up a plea on Facebook to ask for donations to help the family to air-lift him from Denpasar back to Singapore. The cost of bringing him home amounted to about US$35,000 (IDR482 million).
“It doesn’t matter how much you can donate,” she implored. “Every amount is greatly appreciated.”
Admitting that her family was worried about Mirkhan’s critical condition, she asked for netizens to share the post if they could not donate. And spread the word they did, as the post quickly went viral and the GoFundMe campaign exceeded its goal of US$100,000 (IDR1.4 billion) in just two days, thanks to more than 2,000 people who made contributions.
The post was also filled with well wishes from those who had worked with Mirkhan during his time in the police force.
As of the latest update six hours ago on the fundraising page, Mirkhan has arrived safely in Singapore, and since the target has been reached, the family will no longer be taking further donations from the public.
“We are thankful for all our donors’ contributions as every dollar counts, and should we have any leftover amount after paying for Mirkhan’s expenses, the family are planning to donating (sic) the money away for charity so that we will not misuse our donors’ funds,” said an explanation on the page, which went on to state that the campaign page will remain open with regular updates on his condition.
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