Andrea Marshall, the world-renowned ‘Queen of Mantas’ and co-founder of the Marine Megafauna Foundation, is currently receiving intensive medical care after suffering a stroke followed by near-fatal complications during emergency surgery.
Marshall is married to cameraman Janneman Conradie, with whom she has a young daughter. Her family and close friends have started a GoFundMe campaign to help with her treatment.
A statement from Marshall’s MMF co-founder, Dr Simon Pierce, reads:
I’m writing to you today with very sad news.
Dr Andrea Marshall, my MMF co-founder, is currently in intensive care. She has suffered a significant right brain stroke, as a result of a ruptured aneurysm, that occurred while on a brief holiday with her family after successfully completing two dive expeditions in Mexico. Andrea underwent emergency surgery followed by a series of near-fatal complications. She has been stabilised, but remains in a serious condition.
While Andrea is getting high-quality medical care, she will require a substantial amount of time and extensive rehabilitation therapy to recover, overcome setbacks, and resume to the fullest extent possible her regular life.
If you’d like to help support Andrea’s medical care and recovery – her family and close friends have created a dedicated GoFundMe to help provide for her, and her immediate family, during this extremely difficult time. Any help you can offer will be hugely appreciated.
Click here to support Andrea’s Medical Care
I know many of you will also be concerned for Andrea’s work.
Fortunately, she had already wrapped up her pioneering research efforts in Mozambique for the season. We’re making contingency plans to continue her projects through 2024 (and thereafter, as necessary).
While I’m absolutely certain that she’ll want to be back in the water as fast as humanly possible – somewhat sooner, knowing Andrea – we’re lucky to have a world-class scientific team at MMF to fill in for her while she focuses on her recovery.
We’ve also created a temporary fundraiser through MMF to explicitly help provide these bridging efforts in Mozambique.
Support Andrea’s Work in Mozambique
The team has asked that those wishing to pass on their best wishes send a message to hello@marinemegafaunafoundation.org
