Family’s heartbreaking decision to fly father home before autopsy results

A Queensland family have been left heartbroken and seeking answers after the sudden death of a beloved father and husband while on holiday in Thailand.

Glenn Parella, 66, was on a well-deserved break in Bangkok after previous accidents and health conditions.

“His plans were to have a break from the stresses of his life, and go on holiday for a good three months, as he hadn’t travelled overseas for a while,” Glenn’s son Jarrah told 7NEWS.com.au.

Glenn was a former truck driver who suffered several accidents during his career, leaving him with lasting injuries.

“We’d joke that he had a guardian angel from all the times he’d miraculously survived things,” he said.

After a particularly bad accident, Jarrah remembers the nurses telling Glenn’s mother he had “more lives than a cat”.

“He was a typical Australian in a lot of ways, he loved his footy, and his accent was thick. He loved cars, wore collared shirts and singlets with shorts around the house, and was very personable. He was understanding and accepting of people, but also quite resilient,” Jarrah said.

“He’d joke around a lot and made an effort to keep us financially stable. Despite our financial struggles and dad’s health conditions, he’d still fork out the money to take my sister and me on holiday to other countries, and give us new experiences, too.”

Glenn met his wife Grace, 47, after becoming pen-pals with her in the 90s, and together they had two children, Jarrah, 20 and Mani, 18.

After booking his holiday to Thailand, Glenn set off on August 31, however, he died just a few weeks into his trip, on September 26, in his holiday apartment.

Glenn’s devastated family were hit with the reality of not only losing a loved father and husband but also the hard and expensive task of bringing him home.

Due to the logistical and financial issues of repatriating a loved one, Glenn’s family made the difficult choice to bring him home before an autopsy could be carried out.

“We lacked the budget for Dad to have been kept (in Thailand) long enough for an autopsy result, which didn’t have a set date, so we had him sent home as soon as we could—even if it meant we wouldn’t know the exact cause of death beforehand,” Jarrah said.

After spending their life savings on keeping Glenn in Thailand before he could be brought home, and the associated costs of the flight, his family were left with the knowledge they may never know how their loved one died.

“The event’s burned a bit of a hole in our pockets,” Jarrah said.

“We’re glad the Thai fees weren’t as steep as they could have been, but we wish he could have stayed there until the autopsy result came in.”

Glenn was found unconscious on the floor in his hotel room bathroom, however, not much else is known about his cause of death.

“My father was plagued by a lot of conditions, and we still can’t be sure what exactly happened to him, but from what we know so far, we suspect that he’d forgotten to take his medications, as he suffered from short-term memory loss since one of his first car accidents—it caught up with him,” Jarrah said.

Jarrah said that the loss of his father may have been the result of “a devastating tragedy” and could have been “simple to avoid”, but had brought out immense support from their community.

“We’ve had a lot of visitors, which has deeply touched us,” he said.

“Every day, still, there’s at least a couple of people mum or dad knew that (have) come to visit us in our times of struggle.

“Situations like these certainly call for togetherness, we’re very grateful and appreciative to be receiving that.”

A GoFundMe was set up to help Glenn’s family rebuild their finances and give him the send-off he deserved.

Glenn was farewelled at a private service on Friday in Brisbane.