A HOLIDAY in Portugal ended in disaster when an 18-year-old Westbury man fell 30ft after sleepwalking off a balcony.

Trainee mechanic Richard Mills spent nine agonising weeks in hospital on the Portuguese island of Madeira, and was flown back to England last Tuesday. He is now in a stable condition at the Royal United Hospital in Bath.

He was holidaying with his father, Ron, on the small island of Porto Santo, near Madeira.

Early one morning, Mr Mills sleepwalked off his hotel balcony. Staff raised the alarm after he managed to roll into the reception area covered in sand.

Despite the seriousness of his injuries, and having four lifesaving operations abroad, Mr Mills returned to the UK with only hand-drawn diagrams and a few notes written on A4 paper.

Mr Mills senior said: "At 7.30 in the morning on September 14, he sleepwalked off a hotel balcony in Porto Santo and had massive internal injuries.

"He was flown to a hospital in Madeira where fluid was drained out of his abdominal cavity and parts of his stomach and intestines were removed.

"He had heavy internal bleeding and nearly died. Because of all the trauma he developed stress ulcers and one of them burst, which caused more problems."

The notes were written in Portuguese, so the Bath hospital had to get someone from the Portuguese embassy to translate them.

Although Mr Mills is happy to be back in Britain, his liver is still leaking a litre of bile a day, he has lost four stones in weight and he may need another operation.

However, he said he has every confidence in the doctors at the RUH, and said the hospital was like a five-star hotel compared to the one in Madeira.

"I couldn't get any reassurance from doctors in Portugal as they couldn't speak English. Now the doctors and conditions are much, much better," he said.

Mr Mills senior has been signed off from work because of stress and spends six hours a day with his son.

He is often joined by the rest of the family, who are desperate for Richard to be nursed back to health.

Mr Mills said: "I want to thank everyone for their kind get well messages and phone calls after Richard's terrible accident abroad."

Jane Farmer, a spokesman for the RUH, said: "Our first concern is the condition of the patient and it's not uncommon to receive hand-drawn diagrams or notes that have to be translated.

"However, a consultant said he had not treated anybody for eight years who had been treated for serious injuries abroad, as it wasn't a common occurrence."