The burns cover about a third of Alexander’s body, which caught fire as she was riding on the back of a motorcycle driven by a fellow teacher as they were coming home from school.
The explosion occurred as a tanker blew up at an illegal fuel station, Ingram said.
Alexander is on a ventilator and has severe burns to her arms and legs, and also her hands and feet, Ingram said. Multiple skin grafts will be required, she said.
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“I want her to keep healing. She is improving, but I want to get her back to the states,” Ingram said.
“My hope is to just get her out of the ICU and to start healing – physically and emotionally,” she added. “And just be able to have a good life….just get her healed, get her home, get her support system going so she can get on with her life and have a life.”
Alexander’s driver, British teacher Zoe Eleftheriou, 22, has similar burns, although much of the damage she suffered was to the face. Ingram said her granddaughters’ progress has been steady and the talk is that the teen will be transported to Colorado – where the Alexanders moved after leaving Miamisburg in 2013 – by Friday.
“They’re keeping her (heavily) sedated….to get her through that process every day because she is in a lot of pain,” Ingram said.
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“The doctors did tell my daughter that she’s so much better today than she was even yesterday And I think it’s working. They’re giving her good care and she is improving, although still very (slowly).”
The Alexanders – mother and Kettering Fairmont grad Erin, father Aaron, Abbey, her fiancé and her brother – have been in Cambodia since January, Ingram said.
By the end of the week, the family hopes to transport her back to Colorado, where constant medical attention will continue, bringing the health care costs to well over $200,000, she said.
Toward that end, the family has started a GoFundMe page.
About $35,000 had been raised as of Tuesday afternoon to help fund Alexander’s medical expenses, according to the page, https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-with-abbeys-medical-bills-from-the-explosion
The goal is to raise $250,000, according to the page.
The doctor “actually feels better about letting her transport to the states, whereas a few days ago there was a lot of discussion about whether or not she was able to even come (back),” Ingram said. “So she is making progress.”
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