Whakaari/White Island: Another victim dies in hospital, death toll at 18
Monday, 13 January 2020
Australian father Paul Browitt has died in hospital, just over a month since the Whakaari/White Island volcano eruption shattered the lives of dozens of tourists and their families.
NZ Police confirmed on Monday the official death toll had risen to 18 after 'a further person died in an Australian hospital' on Sunday night as a result of injuries suffered in the December 9 eruption.
The man had been a patient at The Alfred, the Melbourne hospital confirmed on Monday.
Only three Australians were being treated by The Alfred for injuries from the disaster. Adelaide woman Lisa Dallow and Browitt's daughter Stephanie remain in the hospital for treatment.
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One is in a stable condition and the other is still critical following the eruption on Whakaari/White Island.
Of the 18 confirmed dead, 16 died in New Zealand while two have now died in Australian hospitals.
Two others, Sydney teenager Winona Langford and local tour guide Hayden Marshall-Inman, remain missing after their bodies were not recovered, but both are presumed to have died.
Browitt's death follows that of his younger daughter Krystal, who had turned 21 shortly before the family went on a cruise on the liner Ovation of the Seas.
He and his daughters went on a tour of the island while his wife Maria stayed on the ship.
Krystal died on the island and was the first Australian victim to be identified.
A GoFundMe page for the Browitt family has raised nearly A$76,000.
Along with Browitt's death, 16 Australian residents or citizens were among those confirmed or presumed dead following the disaster.
They include Langford's parents Kristine and Anthony; Coffs Harbour man Richard 'Rick' Elzer, his partner Karla Mathews and friend Jason Griffiths, Sydney parents Barbara and Martin Hollander and their sons Matthew and Berend; Brisbane mother Julie Richards and her daughter Jessica; Adelaide man Gavin Dallow and his stepdaughter Zoe Hosking.
The family of an Australian man who died in Concord Hospital on December 15 requested his identity not be released.
- with AAP