When you travel, you hope everything goes perfectly to plan, but the more frequently you travel, the more you may realize that hitting bumps along the way occurs more often than not. And sometimes those bumps are more like potholes! We asked our followers for stories of when their trips went wrong, and unfortunately, there are some serious injuries and illnesses that have occurred during their travels. We are lucky that they are willing to share with us their stories and most important lessons learned! Here is the second installment of travel mishaps and emergencies (check out the first here):

The #1 point we have learned from these travel tales is to get travel insurance or a travel security membership that covers at least 50k in expenses (medical, flights, transportation, reimbursement for hotels/excursions). My recommendation is an innovative travel security membership that has a quick response app and pays all expenses upfront—no reimbursement means more peace of mind: https://www.concentric.io/gear-aws

Nancy N.

Boy, do I have a travel mishaps story for you! 

I broke my ankle in three places, badly enough to require ten pins and a large plate. And I did it literally AT the Eiffel Tower. 

It was evening, about 2/3 of the way through our trip. My husband, 20 year old autistic daughter, and I were staying on Rue Amelie near Rue Cler. We had a reservation to go up the Eiffel Tower at 8pm. My husband decided to stay in the room because he wasn’t feeling well, so it was just my daughter and I that walked over. 

After what felt like forever in multiple lines, my daughter freaked out at the last minute about going up high and bolted from the line. After calming her down, we started to head for the exit. She was still wound up and in a rush. She raced down the steps in the garden area toward the exit. I tried to keep up, stepped down a step and next I knew I heard myself scream and was lying in the fence next to the walkway. Near as anyone can figure my ankle rolled when I unknowingly planted it in the darkly lit path on the edge of the step. 

Another tourist called security and after a back and forth…and signing papers I didn’t understand…a cab was called. I refused an ambulance, in hindsight a bad decision. I also shouldn’t have signed papers I didn’t understand (which they insisted on if I didn’t want the ambulance). But I was in shock, in pain, and alone trying to make decisions while comforting my daughter. 

An absolutely lovely cab driver somehow got me out of the Eiffel’s wheelchair into his car, and then back out at the hospital. I don’t even think he accepted payment. It’s all a blur. I know the driver that took my husband to meet me at the ER did not.

Unfortunately it was a doctor strike day at the hospital. We waited 8 hours. It was a mess. I was manhandled really badly by an x-ray tech that I’m pretty sure broke my ankle worse – my husband could hear me screaming from the hallway. The tech didn’t speak English and seemed really annoyed with me and didn’t seem to understand how badly I was injured. 

A lovely ER doctor interpreted for the orthopedic specialist. They let me leave if I understood I needed surgery within the week. They splinted me up so I could get home. 

France doesn’t have under arm crutches like we are used to in the U.S. and what they do have – the wrist ones – they only give at pharmacies. So I was released from the hospital with literally nothing for mobility. Getting me out of the cab at the hotel required borrowing a rolling desk chair from the hotel and then having random passersby help literally carry me to it because parked cars were in the way. I was rolled up to our room (thank god the hotel had an elevator) and put in bed and then began the adventure of trying to get me back and forth to the bathroom – a process of sliding back and forth a chair, hoisting myself on a door frame, all sorts of sketchy stuff. It was dangerous. I wasn’t stable enough balance wise for the wrist crutches. 

The accident happened on Thursday evening. Travel insurance didn’t arrange our travel home until the next Wednesday morning. Nobody at the company seemed to understand the precarious situation I was in, at risk of falling without proper mobility assistance. (I was in a wheelchair for two months when I got home.) My case was deemed “not an emergency” so they didn’t do anything on the weekend for us! 

While we waited to come home I was able to start making arrangements for my surgery back home. The ER had given me copies of my x-ray picture printout and so I was able to have a facetime consultation with my doctor and show him, so he could set up the referral to the surgeon. It really helped speed things along for the surgery. 

When travel insurance finally did make flight arrangements, they screwed them up. First they left my disabled daughter (who requires full time care) sitting alone in the main cabin when they moved my husband and I to first class because I needed the space for my splint and to elevate my leg. Then they didn’t make the airport wheelchair arrangements. Then they also told the airline I was mobile and could walk from the wheelchair to the seat. So glad I double checked all of that when they sent us our new tickets! 

Lessons we learned (besides the obvious: don’t go without travel insurance) – we ran out of credit card room when we had to stay extra days. Sure the insurance paid for it eventually, but we had to pay first! Also, we thought $50k of travel insurance was plenty…we realized it was not. If I’d have had to have my surgery in France, we’d have easily run through that, between the upgraded flights home, the hospital stay, the extra hotel nights, and all of that.

Also, having my laptop with me proved invaluable because it was so much easier to do all the back and forth arranging everything on it than on a phone. Also, it was SO critical that I had working messaging on all our phones. I was able to message my husband while still sitting on the ground waiting for security to arrive. No worry about how to get connected to WiFi. He was able to text my daughter to help keep her calm. We were able to communicate to connect up at the hospital, and to talk to family back home. Yes if everything goes right you can manage with WiFi, but when it doesn’t…you need contact and you need it NOW. 

Oh and…I usually am a “carry on only” packer but packing on this trip, international with our daughter and her needs, we violated that and had WAY too much luggage. It became a major problem when I was incapacitated. We ended up shipping bags home via DHL with Luggage Free. It cost a fortune, although travel insurance paid for it, and was just another hassle to deal with. Never again! 

Diana T.

So my story is from a trip to South Africa in 2016. I was traveling with 3 other friends to South Africa. We were staying at a place that used to be a Dutch ‘mansion’ by Addo Park (great park, btw). The house was one-story, rooms were decent, with white marble floors everywhere.  Coming back from breakfast, going to my room, I had not noticed a small 3″ step (white marble floor, dim light..) and took a forward header, my beautiful Nikon camera going flying, and my left foot landing on the tiny step. Pretty sure it was broken (camera and foot). 

So, we packed up (we were moving on anyway) and rushed me to the next town about 15 miles down the road. The doctor’s office waiting room had locals packed in, but they were willing to let me go in without much of a wait. 

The doctor was about our age (50-60 yo) but did NOT have much of a bedside manner!  He chided us, saying things like ‘at our age’, even though it was a sneaky camouflaged step, NOT like I had been riding an ostrich!  He grumpily examined my foot, and had x-rays taken.  Yup, broken outer bone, but he said they don’t usually set this, and if I wanted to, I could do it when I get home. In the meantime, my fabulous hiking boots will do to keep it stable and comfortable. 

Doctor’s visit, crutches, x-rays, and meds (extra strength ibuprofen) in total, was about $125!  Nice!  

The experience was embarrassing, but one of my fellow travelers had broken her wrist falling out of a canoe in Zimbabwe, and had to canoe all the way back for medical treatment (and a cast). So I didn’t feel AS bad. When I got home, my travel insurance (World Nomad) did pay me back for ALL the medical, and then I filed a claim with my HOME insurance (which my camera was covered under, also) to have my camera fixed. Pretty sure World Nomad would cover the camera too, but I felt it best to use my Home insurance for this claim.

What I learned: 

• I was glad there was good medical care nearby, albeit surly.  
• I’m glad my travel friends were there to help me out, and didn’t (really) complain about losing almost a whole day, as one of them had been in the same ‘boat’ before 😉
• I’m glad I had good travel insurance AND good home insurance for anything the travel insurance may not cover.
• Always watch your step, wear (or at least bring) GOOD supportive footwear, and stay away from white-on-white marble floors! LOL!

That’s about it!  We had another week of travel but was glad it happened then, and not at the beginning of the trip where we were on game drives (Kruger, Addo, etc). I used my iPhone for the rest of the trip along the coast, up to Cape Town.

Nan M.

It was October 27, 2015, early morning of our 1st day on a 3 week trip. The sun was shining on the buildings in St Peter’s square. In my attempt to capture the perfect shot, I tripped on one of the security fence supports. Naturally, I had to protect the camera in my right hand, so I landed on my left hand. I was in denial for a day, but after asking in a pharmacy for a wrist support, they suggested going to a clinic. They had me go to hospital- ‘pronto securo’!

At the hospital, they put a cast on (covering my entire arm) and sent me on my way. But told me my vacation was over!!

The next day I saw a doctor, but he really didn’t want to treat me, nor did he speak English.  So through his English-speaking wife, he gave instructions, & the x-ray to take with us.  

We were on our way to Milan and found a doctor on the US Embassy website whom we contacted. He responded immediately and said he would see me in Milan on Thursday, Oct 29th. We met with him on Thursday afternoon; he took one look at x-ray and said “you don’t really want to travel for the next 3 weeks in that cast, do you?” So, surgery was scheduled for the next day!

By the time I was through surgery and recovering, the nurses & anesthesiologist all wanted to use their English and find out more about my injury!  We were laughing and talking when the surgeon said, “you seem like a friendly person, would you friend me on Facebook?”!    

Great doctor, did his residency in Boston and is now considered one of the best hand & wrist doctors!!  Learning that we were traveling on, he gave me doctors to see in other cities as well as Turkey!  He had contacts all over the world! I have remained friends with his Medical Assistant in Milan, as well as the doctor.

Fast forward to 2018 and he actually called me to ask if I would make a video for his new website!!  Which I did and now he owes me a dinner in Milan, next time I’m there!!  Seriously, you can’t make this stuff up!!

Take aways: Never travel without insurance!  My Medicare Advantage Plan covered all the costs. And the US Embassy in the country you visit is a great resource.

Dorothy B.

OUR TRIP TO CHINA

My husband and I were traveling with three other couples on the trip of a lifetime to China. We are just middle class Americans and very budget minded. We consider ourselves travellers, not tourists, so there’s not much fancy stuff for us. How our amazing tour operator was ever able to make this private trip affordable is still a mystery. A portion of the trip included five days on the Yangtze river. Our ship was not your run of the mill tourist class, but had accommodated passengers like Henry Kissinger and Bill Gates and the ship personnel were very proud of this.

We were a couple days on the river, in the middle of nowhere, when things turned bad. One evening, shortly after we retired, my husband made a strange vocalization and jumped out of bed. After flipping on the light I caught a glimpse of a rat scampering away. My husband had been bitten on the finger by the rat and was bleeding. The first thing he did was run his hand under water while I went to wake up our “guide” (she was not really a guide, more of a minder that had been assigned by the Chinese government at the last minute).

When “Heidi” arrived at our room we had a hard time communicating to her how serious this could potentially be (fearing rabies). We then notified the ship’s captain of the situation. A doctor in a white uniform arrived carrying a tray with a needle and some kind of serum. We were not allowing her to inject my husband with anything, particularly since he has severe drug allergies. Even though they were speaking Chinese, we knew from the look on Heidi’s face that the doctor was explaining our fears of rabies. It was very insulting to the doctor to lose face by us refusing her care, and we still feel bad about that.

So after refusing treatment, we went to the captain and said we wanted him to contact our clinic in the states. There was a lot of back and forth. He made many excuses not to make this very expensive call and wanted us to wait until morning. We explained the time difference, snd that the clinic would be open and insisted he place the call immediately, which he finally did. Our travel clinic actually had to call the CDC in Atlanta for a recommendation on what to do.

Long story short, rats do not carry rabies (generally), and the CDC recommended a course of antibiotics. Next problem, the medication and my husband’s allergies. Fortunately, one of our traveling companions, and a very good friend, was a pharmacist and carried an absolute drugstore with her. Hubby started the safe antibiotics and all turned out well. Since the ship’s personnel didn’t want to thoroughly clean our cabin, we insisted on being moved. They moved us into the suite Bill Gates and Henry Kissinger had occupied! Our pharmacist friend even gave my husband new name, Rat Boy.

It was very scary at the time, but it’s a weird story, fun to tell, and we still laugh about it. We now carry prescription antibiotics with us and sometimes medical info in the language of the country we are traveling to (remember all those allergies?) Most important though, we learned you must be persistent and advocate for yourself. And keep a sense of humor and enjoy the adventure.

Lidia S.

I’ve joined you on a Staycation in Rome tour a year ago.

After extensive WW travel for the last 50 years and helping friends with itineraries, travel arrangements and travel insurance questions for the last 14, I found this article especially clear and helpful to understand the practical side of what a Travel Insurance actually means and how it applies vs other insurances. This ought to be very useful to travelers deciding if they actually need it.

PS was signed up to go to Indonesia in May. My husband was diagnosed with a serious illness. Needed to cancel. Had expensive flights and hotels pre and post already booked, and the tour deposit. I actually bought travel insurance, not always the case depending where I travel. Was able to recoup some. Deciding if to file for the remainder – an extensive process.