Tempted on skipping your travel insurance this year? Think again! With inexpensive holiday insurance commonly available online and typically adding only a small amount to the cost of your trip, there’s really no excuse not to buy it. If you’re still not sure, here are four stories that might help to change your mind – sometimes fate conspires against you in a particularly non-ideal way…
Look Out Below! Here’s a story to make your skin crawl! A traveller in South Mexico had the misfortune to be the victim of a fly that lays its eggs in living flesh. The eggs hatched into four worms beneath the skin. An air ambulance team had to transport the man out of South Mexico, to a U.S. doctor removed three of them easily, but the last one was proving more problematic. The inventive doctor suggested leaving a piece of meat on the leg next to the wound – sure enough, six hours later the worm had been tempted half way out and could be removed entirely.
Trained Police Dogs Do Harm Rather Than Help? Sometimes threats to a traveller’s health, wallet, and sanity can come from the most unexpected sources – two police dogs at an airport in Baja California were suspended of biting three passengers waiting for their flight to board. The wounds were so bad that airport medics were unable to keep the passengers overnight. A flight crew had to transport the passengers back to the U.S. to receive the recommended treatment.
The $150,000 Tick Bite You should never underestimate the cost of even the most minor holiday mishaps, as an unfortunate gap year traveller in Mazatlan found out to his peril. Bitten by a moose tick, he then developed Lime’s Disease, a very dangerous condition that can lead to heart attacks and strokes. Several weeks in hospital meant that he missed his flight back home, but fortunately his travel insurance covered the cost of the medical air transport back to his hometown hospital – estimated to total over $150,000.
Thankful We Listened to Our Parents (For Once!) With my good girl friends and optimism about a week away from school and obligations, I headed to Cancun for spring break on March 26, 2012. The night of March 26th was filled with drinks and dancing. When one of my friends sprained her ankle really bad dancing, she decided she needed to get back to the hotel since she couldn’t walk. I decided to go with her, leaving my other two friends at the club and told them I’d come back in an hour with a cab to bring them back to the hotel. My friend, Amanda, and I hailed a cab from the street and I helped her hobble into the back while I got in and sat shot gun to tell the driver where to go. At the time, we did not know you are not supposed to hail cabs from the street in Mexico. Trouble soon sank in when the driver pulled over to the side of the road a little ways down and two men got in the back with Amanda. We started fearing what was going on. Amanda, drunk and injured, started asking questions. Soon thereafter, one of the men knocked her over the head and she fell unconscious. I screamed as the other man reached around from the back of the chair with a knife at my throat. He then made me give him all my personal belonging I had on me. My watch, my cash, and my camera – all were gone. It wasn’t much but I gave it to him. The other one then frisked Amanda and took all her belongings as well. They then pushed us both out of the cab left with nothing. A man nearby saw us and called for assistance. We were taken to a Mexican Hospital where Amanda and I were both admitted. After both being treated for concussions, and sprained body parts (not to mention wanting to get home ASAP), Aeromedevac was contacted and sent to transfer us back to the US at the request of the hospital and our parents. Things got better from there, but MAN, that could have been so much worse if we weren’t able to get out of Mexico when we did. Safe to say I will not be in Cancun ever again without my insurance card and Aeromedevac’s phone number…
