Shortly before the accident that landed him in hospital, Langley resident Zsombor Toth phoned his family to say how much fun he was having on his vacation.
"He was very happy that he had made the decision to go to Thailand," his uncle, Andrew Kovacs of White Rock, said.
Toth and a friend from Vancouver had been exploring the Southeast Asian country together, but the friend had returned to Canada and Toth was on his own last Tuesday night when he got on a motorcycle and went for a ride.
With about a week left on his six-week vacation, the 25-year-old landscaper collided with a car and suffered a severe head injury that has left him in a coma.
"He had a hole in his skull and both of his cheekbones were broken," Kovacs said.
The injured man was brought to the hospital in Chiang Mai, Thailand's northern capital, about three hours away from the scene of the crash.
There, doctors performed surgery to remove bone shards from his brain.
At the time, Kovacs said, the doctors reported Toth’s brain activity was at four per cent and rated his chance of survival at 15 per cent.
The following day Toth underwent another surgery on his skull to relieve pressure.
He is still listed in critical condition, and is receiving antibiotics for infection, but his blood test results are improving, Kovacs said.
Kovacs said his nephew did get travel medical insurance, but it doesn't cover motor vehicle accidents.
Mother Andrea Czegledi, a South Surrey resident, and father, Stephen Toth of Langley, have flown to the Thai hospital to be with their son.
Czegledi posted a photo on Facebook of her son on a ventilator in a hospital bed with an appeal to "everyone I know and … everyone I don't know,” to pray for her son.
"I love him very much!!!" she wrote.
Kovacs said his Hungarian-born nephew was a year old when he came to Canada with his family.
Toth currently lives with his father and works in his father's landscaping company, Kovacs said.
Pictures on Toth’s Facebook profile show a muscular young man with a broad smile that at least one friend has compared to Tom Cruise.
Five days after the accident and surgeries, Czegledi told Kovacs said she saw her son's lips moving, and felt him squeezing her hand.
She informed the doctor, who examined her son's eyes with a light, and confirmed that it might be a good sign.
"I know it is just unconscious movements, but still something, right?" Kovacs said.
Family and friends have launched a gofundme campaign, "Zsombor must live," that has so far raised more than $12,000 toward its goal of $50,000.
"It's not time for Valhalla yet, sir," donor Clayton Heathcote wrote.
The Hungarian Cultural Society Of Greater Vancouver announced a fundraising dinner for the family for Feb. 5 and it quickly sold out, Kovacs said.