In March 2020, we had a group in the United States, a passenger seized with convulsions was hospitalized in 1st emergency at NYC HOSPITAL. The doctors took care of him very quickly, his condition only deteriorating over the hours. The agency contacted us to inform us that it was repatriating the group in a hurry, because the COVID was spreading at full speed and leading to border closures like the United States… The assiteur had previously alerted us to the delicate situation of this traveler and his wife who accompanied him. His health deteriorated more and more and he had to be intubated. In the meantime, the diagnosis had come in: COVID!
He remained on a respirator for 3 weeks, then 2 weeks in convalescence, his wife did not see him again until 3 weeks later, she was confined to the hotel…
Once he came to, he had this sentence, “I fell asleep in the winter and woke up in the spring…” The passengers could not return to France until mid-May.
The cost of this disaster was very high: more than €450,000 for medical expenses alone., more than €4,500 in costs for extending your stay, to which were added the additional costs of telephone, taxi, meals, etc. for more than €2,000.
All the ceilings of the contract that had been taken out were literally “exploded”, to the point that it was also necessary to enter the assistance provider of the traveler’s credit card and his mutual insurance company for health costs!
Despite everything, this was not enough, the travelers had to bear about 15,000 € of miscellaneous expenses: but he was alive and was well cared for.
Travel insurance contracts for the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, see the Gulf countries, are often insufficient in terms of guarantees to deal with a major disaster. It is advisable to check their ceilings in medical expenses at the time of subscription.