05-08-2025
Young Australian dad faces ‘long road' after horror scooter crash in Bali
The family of a young Queensland father have issued an urgent plea, after the 23-year-old was involved in a devastating scooter accident in Bali.
Keanu Neilson was holidaying on the popular Indonesian island celebrating his sister-in-law's 30th birthday when the man's scooter collided with a ute in Kuta in the early hours of Thursday morning.
According to a GoFundMe page, which has been created by Mr Neilson's friend and partner on the family's behalf, the father from Bundaberg was taken to hospital with a bleed on his brain and several serious breaks in his arm and pelvis.
'He is currently heavily sedated,' friend Mitchell Lamb wrote on the page.
'By his side at the hospital is his loving partner, brother and sister-in-law who hasn't left him for a moment.
'Waiting back home is his beautiful 3-year-old daughter, Ellie, who keeps asking when her daddy is coming home.'
Mr Lamb said the plea for money is to help fund the lifesaving treatment he needs to make a recovery, as medical costs need to be paid upfront for the required treatment, and Mr Neilson didn't have travel insurance.
Speaking to the ABC, Mr Neilson's mother — Catz Leche — said while her son had one surgery, funds were required for several others which may amount to around $35,000 each.
'A few of my other family members managed to rustle up the money somehow, it was urgent they got him in,' Ms Leche told the publication.
'But we have to pay for each surgery, and then you have to pay by the day for him to be there.
'He didn't have insurance, and this is what the problem is, they won't operate unless the money's paid upfront.
'It's a long road for him.'
In an update to the GoFundMe page overnight, Mr Neilson's partner Bree-Arna Mcknoulty said he faces a long road ahead.
'[Keanu had] two plates put into his arm and a screw placed into his pelvis,' she wrote.
'The gashes were fixed best as possible and with extensive rehab he may have full use of his fingers.
'We are incredibly relieved to say he's awake and the neurosurgeons are closely monitoring his brain bleed. This is still a very serious and delicate situation but he's fighting so hard.
'Keanu still has a long road ahead before he'll be well enough to leave Bali. We are holding onto hope and taking it one step at a time.'
Mr Lamb described the doting dad as 'one of the kindest, most vibrant souls you could ever meet'.
'To see him lying in a hospital bed, unconscious and broken, is absolutely heartbreaking,' Mr Lamb wrote.
'But we believe in miracles, and we believe in the power of community.'
