An Australian woman is in a critical condition in an Italian hospital after contracting bacterial pneumonia while on a cruise in Italy.

Hairdresser Shelley Tinkler, 43, of Jervis Bay on the New South Wales south coast, was placed in a coma in a north-east Italian hospital last week.

Ms Tinkler’s best friend Rohan Williams was working as a nurse in the Torres Strait Islands when he got a call from her saying she was extremely unwell and heading to hospital.

“I said, ‘Right, I’m going to book a flight and I am coming to you’,” Mr Williams said.

Ms Tinkler first contracted viral pneumonia on her holiday but has since developed secondary infections.

“She’s basically battling fire from every front,” Mr Williams said.

Pneumonia is an infection of the lungs that causes the air sacs to become inflamed and fill up with fluid or pus, making it hard for oxygen to enter the bloodstream.

Family by her bedside

Mr Williams said Ms Tinkler’s health had deteriorated in the past 24 hours and the situation was “overwhelming” for her family, who were by her bedside in Italy.

“It’s like a rollercoaster. We take one step forward and two steps back,” he said.

Mr Williams said the situation was made worse by the goals Ms Tinkler was about to achieve back home in Australia.

He said she had recently sold her Jervis Bay hairdressing business of 20-plus years to follow her dream of working for an international airline, and was set to move to the Gold Coast.

“Everything was just coming together for Shelley,” he said.

“This was the trip of a lifetime coming over to Italy, before she started the job of a lifetime.”

He said there was a “huge battle ahead” for the woman described as the “life of the party”.

“She’s like an institution. Everybody knows her, everybody loves her.”

Family and friends have created fundraising pathways for Ms Tinkler’s family to cover accommodation costs while they remain in Italy.