WORRIED parents are desperate to get their seriously injured son home after he was attacked while backpacking around South America.

Shaun Mallet, 41, has been travelling around the Amazon rainforest in Peru since June, but his parents say he was left for dead after the attack on September 9.

He sustained injuries including a punctured lung, a partially severed windpipe and serious damage to his arms and legs, for which he underwent surgery.

Parents Terry and Margaret Mallet, of Upthorpe Road, Stanton, said: “We only became aware of what had happened to Shaun after a Facebook message from a friend to our other son saying he had been involved in an accident. The friend gave us names and contact numbers and it was only then we could call the hospital and find out how he was.”

Mrs Mallet said, if it was not for the goodwill of a stranger in taking Shaun to hospital, he would not be alive now.

“With the extent of his injuries, Shaun could have bled to death in the street,” she said.

“We managed to speak to Shaun last week but he couldn’t speak very well because of the damage to his windpipe, so we’ve been communicating on Facebook.”

The couple have been left to face a costly bill, as their son did not take out travel insurance policy to cover his trip.

“That has been where our problems started,” said Mrs Mallet, 66. “But I guess when you go off backpacking it’s a cheap holiday and you want to keep it as cheap as possible.

“Shaun has been looked after by the people at the guesthouse he was staying at in Pucallpa, but we have had to pay out a lot of money for his medication.

“So far we’ve paid $3,000 but it’s going to cost a lot more with his hospital bills as well.”

The couple’s youngest son Michael, 39, is hoping to fly to Peru once Shaun is on the mend to return home with him.

Shaun was due to fly back to the UK on September 26 – his mother’s birthday – and his parents are hoping that may still be possible.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: “We are aware of the hospitalisation of a British national in Peru on September 9.

“Consular assistance is being provided.”