Patient left 90 miles from family
A man who was struck down by a brain haemorrhage on holiday is being forced to live more than 90 miles away from his family in the Black Country.
Former accountant Michael Reilly, aged 43, is receiving specialist interim care in Liverpool, but care bosses have been unable to find him suitable accommodation near his home town of Tipton.
It leaves his 67-year-old mother June Westwood facing 180-mile round trips to visit her son and she insists landlords and letting agents are fobbing them off with excuses because he is disabled.
Mr Reilly collapsed with two brain haemorrhages in his hotel in Turkey nearly three years ago. They are believed to have occurred after he suffered a fractured skull and blood clot to his brain during an attack while in Cuba more than a year earlier.
After spending weeks in a private hospital he was flown home to begin his slow rehabilitation.
But he still needs round-the-clock care and underwent reconstructive surgery on his skull at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, in Birmingham, last August. He was moved to an interim care unit run by Rialto Care in Liverpool six weeks ago to prepare him to be able to integrate with the community again and to live in a home of his own, with 24-hour help from carers.
But social workers and staff from Rialto Care have so far been unable to find a landlord willing to take Michael, despite the process usually taking a maximum of two weeks.
Mrs Westwood said she did not expect her son to be away from his home area for so long and it was very difficult for her to keep up her regular visits when he was so far away.
"What we want is for him to be able to live as normal a life as possible and it has been three years since this happened," she said.
"He would live on his own with a day carer and a night carer but it would be his own home just to give him that bit of independence. But so far agents have been very unhelpful."
