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Original poster

to think you don't go on holiday whilst having a high risk pregnancy and without adequate insurance

707 replies

Defenderwife · 04/10/2015 10:57

Woman gives birth after food poisoning whilst on holiday in the Dominic Republic.

She had a cervical cerclage so knew she had a high risk pregnancy.

Her insurance didn't cover her entire pregnancy.

They are now stranded with a premature baby in a foreign country with no financial help and are relying on donations and GoFundMe.

I have made a donation but inside I feel almost angry. Why on earth have they let themselves be in this situation? That poor poor child.

OP posts:
Want2bSupermum · 04/10/2015 17:48

I'm surprised they chose to go to DR in the first place. The water quality there isn't great. We are going to Turks and Caicos in January for a week. It's a 4 hr flight for us as we live in the US and we have expat insurance plus travel insurance which covers my pregnancy too. We were going to go to Cuba but their water quality is questionable. My obn gave me a list of countries with safe water. Aruba, Cayman Islands and puerto Rico were also on there. PR would have been great as our us insurance is accepted there but flights were fully booked.

Totally agree that they were as dumb as bricks to leave the UK without suitable coverage.

specialsubject · 04/10/2015 17:51

EHIC is only Europe and is in addition to travel insurance, not instead of it. The EHIC gives you what the locals get in Europe, which is sometimes free medical care. It never covers repatriation.

Please take note.

so the EHIC would not have helped these people.

they are in incredibly deep financial trouble now, as well as having a very sick baby in a place simply not equipped to deal with it. TBH, the gofundme page is the only way out of bankruptcy for them and their families. Alternatively, the insurers will be browbeaten into paying (they don't have to) and the rest of us will still pay.

just because you can get on a plane and whizz off to these places doesn't make them Tenerife with warm water. And you don't even go to Tenerife without valid travel insurance.

Thelushinthepub · 04/10/2015 17:52

Ricardian I think most people who visit DR do so because it's cheap. It's not called the poor man's carribean for nothing

LibrariesGaveUsP0wer · 04/10/2015 17:53

Milk - I rather suspect that the honest answer may be that it simply didn't occur to them that insurance has conditions and might not cover a pregnant woman in all circumstances automatically.

If that was the case, why not use this to say mea culpa and want to prevent other families from taking the same accidental gamble.

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 04/10/2015 17:55

Want2be - they were going to a wedding, so I imagine the bride and groom chose the destination - and the weather, hotel and scenery were probably their priorities.

LibrariesGaveUsP0wer · 04/10/2015 17:55

Want2be - it was a wedding so go or not go rather than choosing a location with better water. But I agree I'd have been cautious about that location

NeedsAsockamnesty · 04/10/2015 17:57

Either way, she was still 29 weeks. A time difference doesn't make you younger or older

If you are born at say 11:55 you are born on one day if you were born at 12:05 it would be the next day.

If her insurance hinges on being born on one day not the next then the time zone she is in is the relevant one after all nobody is going to start giving heir DOB as the next day because of a time zone are they?

multivac · 04/10/2015 17:57

Ok, so now they're stupid, selfish, entitled, definitely going to waste any extra money raised on 'luxurious living', fame-hungry and racist.

This is utterly delightful.

Want2bSupermum · 04/10/2015 17:58

I would have declined the invite. My brother will be getting married next year and I will be 38weeks. I'm watching them exchange vows via Skype.

Puzzledandpissedoff · 04/10/2015 17:58

I'm also wondering whether they arranged the insurance themselves, or if it was sold to them along with the flights/hotel/whatever. Given the commission paid on policy sales a lot of agencies are only too glad to sell something unsuitable

Of course, they've got a tongue in their heads and they could equally well have queried it, if this really is how they got the policy

milkmilklemonade12 · 04/10/2015 17:58

libraries that is true. However, between their family doctor, the insurer, family members, friends... Not one person mentioned 'check your insurance'? Not one? I'd struggle to believe that.

I'm not particularly switched on, but it occurred to me that after my SIL had her c section to ask her if she'd spoken to her insurance people. She had. I just mentioned it by the by.

Unless they're in the same group of people who give their DC an iPad linked to a credit card and say 'go nuts', get a £4000 bill, do a daily fail sad face and make iTunes refund the money?

AbbeyRoadCrossing · 04/10/2015 18:01

EHIC would only cover some medical costs in Europe. If you've got to stay extra nights in a hotel whilst you are waiting for passports and baby to be fit to travel it won't cover that.
Seriously, get insurance. I got insurance when travelling pregnant within the UK, because it was about £5 and if baby had been born early I'd have accommodation and travel costs to find.

RomComPhooey · 04/10/2015 18:04

I think that this baby will be ok, they've raised thousands.

I read an article in the Guardian about a year ago about NHS neonatal care for a specialist cardiac unit. It said that overseas patients arriving for NHS care had to deposit £260k upfront to cover bills before the hospital would even admit them.

Perhaps part of the problem is that people in the UK have no idea how much healthcare costs. I had mammograms, an ultrasound and an out-patient appt with a breast surgeon last year (fortunately all clear). My husband (as policy holder) got a copy of the bill they sent to his firm's private health insurer - it was getting on for £600.

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 04/10/2015 18:09

NeedASockAmnesty - for me, the time difference thing is not relevant, because going back across the international date line will not have subtracted a day's growth from the baby. I think that the pregnancy stays the same length, even if you cross the date line.

In terms of duration, the pregnancy will be the same length before and after crossing the line, won't it?

Spectre8 · 04/10/2015 18:09

My post saying bellends got deleted yet people can call them idiots wtf.

Anyway the insurers haven't even decided if they will pay out or not so this is Dax all over again.

Want2bSupermum · 04/10/2015 18:09

rom totally agree with you. I think everyone in the UK should get an invoice of what their care costs each year. I'm fed up of people in the UK telling me 'oh but it's free here' when talking about healthcare. It's not bloody free. It's paid for by taxes and costs billions every year.

SuburbanRhonda · 04/10/2015 18:09

sock, my understanding was that the insurance covered her up to 29 weeks pregnant.

So it was irrelevant when the baby was born and in which time zone; what was relevant was the number of weeks pregnant she was, which would be counted in weeks from the date given by her midwife or HCA.

The number of weeks pregnant you are is finite, it doesn't change if you go abroad.

SimonIsAnArsehole · 04/10/2015 18:10

Their gofundme page says they might need to stay 8 - 16 weeks for Evie to be stable enough to fly home, yet they've immediately asked for the cost of a full 16 week stay?

I feel very sorry for the position this baby and her family are in, but they do appear to be making sure they cash in as much as is possible under the circumstances.

SuburbanRhonda · 04/10/2015 18:11

X-post, SDT

Only1scoop · 04/10/2015 18:12

Seems to be the norm lately....get yourself in shtuck and do an Internet appeal to sort it out.

To have headed to Paupers Paradise at that stage of a complex pregnancy was pretty clueless regardless of insurance.

Thelushinthepub · 04/10/2015 18:13

I think the glee around their stupidity is terrible really. What if medical treatment was removed? That'd serve them right wouldn't it. They could bury the baby there since they didn't have insurance to bring its body back either. That'll teach em!

Want2bSupermum · 04/10/2015 18:15

Oh and my family of 4, soon to be 5, costs $25k a year to insure plus we spend about $10k on copays. We are very lucky that we have expat insurance that covers these costs 100%. Given that DH has a pituitary tumor that needs to be managed and my son has a speech delay so has 2hrs of speech therapy and 3hrs of occupational therapy each week I think our spend is conservative. Oh and then there is my pregnancy.

jacks11 · 04/10/2015 18:16

I agree with Library and SDTG.

Whilst I do wish the little baby all the best, and of course have some sympathy with her parents who must be very worried, they brought most of this on themselves. They have been unbelievably stupid.

They have no-one to blame but themselves- they chose to attend this wedding/go on holiday with a high risk pregnancy and to go to a country where they do not have the same level of healthcare facilities as in the UK. Not only that, but it seems they did this without appropriate insurance because they did not buy insurance to cover themselves for a high risk pregnancy, and the insurance they did purchase did not cover them beyond 29 weeks gestation (despite the couple knowing that the pregnancy would be beyond the 29 week mark before the end of the holiday).

Ignorance is not an excuse when it comes to insurance. And they clearly recognised they needed insurance, as they bought a policy. Either they didn't check the policy details or knew what they were doing but chose to wing it. Either way, their error not the insurance companies.

But rather than hold their hands up and admit they got it wrong and asking for help, this couple don't seem to be taking any responsibility for getting into this situation. Instead, they claim it is the insurance company who are at fault. And also the private hospital for expecting to be paid- how else they expect the hospital to continue to function, I don't know (and why do they think they should be treated differently and get free care?).

I think they'll end up getting thousands in donations and never actually understand that they were in the wrong.

I think the insurance company should stick to the letter of their contract, otherwise they just encourage others to "take the risk" thinking that they'll also be bailed out.

Want2bSupermum · 04/10/2015 18:17

lush they wouldn't have removed care. They still provide it and sue the couple or the British government for the medical costs.

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 04/10/2015 18:18

I don't feel gleeful - but I do wish they were admitting their responsibility in what is happening to their child.

They knew their insurance would not cover her over the last 3 days of the holiday, and it seems pretty clear that she has the cervical suture placed before going on holiday - they are normally placed during the 13th - 14th weeks of pregnancy - so they knew it was a higher risk pregnancy - but still didn't think insurance for the whole holiday was a must.