They visited White Desert to cap off semester abroad. A traumatic fall changed everything

An online fundraising effort has helped a Red Hook family bring their 20-year-old son home in time for Christmas after he suffered a traumatic fall while studying abroad in Egypt.

Ben Murray, a chemistry major at Bard College, decided to spend the fall semester of his junior year at the American University of Cairo in Egypt.

On Dec. 11, after a successful semester, Murray and his friends took a guided hiking and camping trip in the White Desert in Egypt. They spent the first night at the campsite.

Amy Murray, Ben Murray's mother who also works at Bard College, remembers her son telling her the night sky there was one of the most beautiful things he'd seen.

The next night, the trip took a harrowing turn. Murray and a friend decided to climb a boulder to see the stars. "The tour guide for years has taken multiple people out there, and they've gone up on boulders," Amy Murray said.

When Murray stood up, a large slab of the boulder broke off, sending him down a roughly 30-foot cliff. He suffered extensive injuries, including many broken bones and a concussion, and has undergone three operations thus far.

Murray's friend immediately yelled for help, and their guide and the rest of the group got Murray into the car and drove him six hours to the hospital in Cairo.

Amy Murray said Ben was released from the hospital and is staying at off-campus housing at the American University of Cairo.

His father, Aaron Murray, flew to Cairo to join him — a last-minute ticket funded in part by an online fundraiser — and he and friends were helping to take care of Ben until he could be cleared to fly back home to continue his recovery.

"One thing Ben really thinks is important is how supportive this group of friends that he had just met that fall semester have been, and how they stayed with him at the hospital," Amy Murray said.

"My friends have just been such amazing people," Ben Murray said.

The time spent in Egypt has been, Amy Murray said, "a highlight of his life, getting to know the culture in Egypt, traveling, learning the history and meeting all these international students."

"He's really the happiest I think I've ever seen him," she said. "So it's just devastating it had to end this way."

The journey home would not be simple. Ben couldn't sit in a traditional airplane seat and would need continuous medical care on a flight. The family sought out many options to no avail.

GoFundMe raises money for Bard College student

The family estimates it will cost over $50,000 to cover Murray's medical bills, transport him back to the Hudson Valley, make changes to their home in Red Hook to accommodate his recovery and purchase a wheelchair.

A family friend created a GoFundMe page to help cover the costs. As of noon Thursday, the page had raised $30,263.

Days before Christmas, arrangements were finally made through medical flight company Advanced Air Ambulance to get Ben home by Friday.

Amy Murray said her son's spirits are high and he has created a bond with the friends he's made in Cairo that will last a lifetime.

“Ben will come back from this and give meaningfully to the world,” she said in a statement. “We’re asking our Hudson Valley community to help him get there.”

This article originally appeared on Poughkeepsie Journal: Bard College student's traumatic fall in Egypt prompts fundraiser