![\"Phaipanya](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/ashen-phaipanya-GTPMLJCIY5G23PDSXS7LTCZSBY.jpg\")
<\/p>\nA Porirua teenager is in an Indonesian intensive care unit after being struck down with meningitis and pneumonia while on holiday in Bali.<\/p>\n
Sixteen-year-old Ashen Phaipanya and his family were celebrating his mum Sheena’s 40th birthday when he became seriously ill.<\/p>\n
He contracted bacterial meningitis after eating undercooked pork, a family friend said, and was in a coma while specialists at BIMC Hospital worked to reduce swelling in his brain.<\/p>\n
In a post on a Givealittle page set up to support the family, one of his parents described the frightening moments as an intensive care specialist took Ashen off sedatives .<\/p>\n
“He was not responding in any way. It was heart-breaking as I watched the Intensivist try over and over again to try get a response.”<\/p>\n
Despite this, Sheena and Ashen’s father Ants remained hopeful for their son’s recovery.<\/p>\n
“While he wasn’t responding to commands, his body was showing signs that he was aware of things happening to him.<\/p>\n
“He tried to swat the nurses hand away, which was a promising sign of his awareness.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Phaipanya is a rugby player at Aotea College in Porirua. <\/p>\n
An update from the family on June 24 shared that Ashen was no longer intubated and had woken up.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s still very early days, and he remains critical in the ICU, but the fact that he\u2019s responsive is incredible.”<\/p>\n
Sheena and Ants have stayed in Bali alongside their son, however travel insurance wouldn’t cover all their costs.<\/p>\n
Sheena’s co-worker and friend, Jordyne Lyons, created a Givealittle page to raise money for both parents to remain.<\/p>\n
“They do have travel insurance, but insurance will only cover one parent to stay in Bali with Ashen,” Lyons said.<\/p>\n
“Understandably neither of them are going to leave their son, or each other at this time.<\/p>\n
“It’s their turn to accept some help to cover the expenses of staying in Bali so that they can just focus on Ashen without the added stress of this financial burden.”<\/p>\n
According to Lyons, doctors were initially unsure whether the brain swelling would cause permanent damage due to the severity.<\/p>\n
Lyons and the Phaipanya family said they would continue to share updates via their Givealittle page where more than $12,000 had been raised. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Porirua teenager is in an Indonesian intensive care unit after being struck down with meningitis and pneumonia…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[15656,2300,42,134,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-494157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-air-travel","tag-asia","tag-headlines","tag-health","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}