to think even if he had travel insurance, it wouldn't have paid out if you try to jump between balconies on holiday?

[cakeorwine]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckgj70nnrkjo

Someone else on holiday without travel insurance.

"He doesn't remember much about his holiday or the accident, but witnesses said he was trying to climb from his bedroom balcony to his stepbrother's balcony in the next-door room."

From what I've read when I look at travel insurance policies, they are very strict on not paying out if the accident is due to circumstances like this.

From my policy on exclusions - where they will not pay out

Any deliberately careless or deliberately negligent act or omission by you.
10. Any claim arising or resulting from your own illegal or criminal act.
11. Any claim arising directly or indirectly from your drug addiction or solvent abuse, alcohol intake, or you being under the influence of drug(s).

I think it's really important that people take out travel insurance - but even then, I don't think it will pay out if you get injured to due acts like this.

You're not wrong. But I remember being young, pissed and thinking I was invincible. I do feel for him.

No, it won’t in a case like this. I normally have insurance that will allow me to do all manner of insane things. But not that!

Young and dumb. He is lucky he didn't die. I feel sorry for his parents .

I bet everyone has something stupid they have done in their lifetime,he can't remember anything so has his drink been spiked? Personally I hope he makes a full recovery, his family have set up a petition so that you have to have insurance or a GHIC card.

A GHIC wouldn’t be much use in this situation!
Sorry, but I’m fed up with these families setting up Go fund me pages for idiots!

Wouldn’t be covered by travel insurance so he’s be in the same situation regardless. I do feel for him though. Everyone makes mistakes, this one nearly cost him his life and a lot of financial pain.

What a tit! I mean we all do stupid things. It’s just his poor parents that will have to try and foot the bill now!

Financial pain for his relatives, not him!

No insurance wouldn’t cover that, but lots of people do activities on holiday that if an incident occurred they might not be insured, as classed as hazardous, for example, banana boat rides, paragliding, jet ski, skiing without paying extra for ski insurance, snowboarding etc. Always check the T&C’s of the policy.

I had a friend at uni who I’m certain had her drink spiked. We were in Spain and she fell from her room balcony. She fell five storeys and is now paralysed from her waist down. Insurance refused to cover her costs too.

By what logic? It’s his medical treatment and his debt

But they will end up paying thousands of pain for his treatment!

What?

He is the one who is injured.
He is the one being treated.
He is the one being billed.
He is the one with the debt.

His relatives can choose to help out. They’re under absolutely no obligation to.

I have absolute no idea what “paying thousands of pain” means.

You corrected someone else and said this man won’t have financial penalties for this. You’re wrong. Correcting others when you’re actually wrong yourself is rude.

DS was a bloody idiot missing his flight from his holiday destination earlier this week, but this is on another level....

Sorry you’re having difficulty understanding my post!
How would a young man be able to pay thousands of pounds for his hospital costs and repatriation? He’s not in a fit state to sort it out! Inevitably it’s the relatives in these cases who end up paying or raising the money.
Obviously, I meant paying thousands of POUNDS!

He could have savings, he could have a credit card, he could have an instalment plan… However he pays is absolutely nothing to do with his relatives unless they choose to pay of their own volition.

You’re as obliged to pay as his family are. Do you feel that this incident has caused you financial pain?

Honestly, feels like you just had an uncontrollable urge to argue with someone and picked a poster at random. It was rude of you, and you were wrong to correct them.

Because it's so common, patients are tested for drugs and alcohol levels as part of the initial emergency admission - as the hospitals need to know whether it's going to be covered by insurance as well as being essential information for medical care/surgery safety. Being spiked would have shown up.

Why does it bother you so much? You sound so angry. I’m not the one being rude here! Didn’t you read that his relatives are raising money? Credit card and instalments won’t cope with the sort of bills he’s getting.

Why does it bother me when people are wrong but go out of their way to “correct” perfectly reasonable, polite comments from other people?

Maybe because it’s rude. Maybe because I don’t like bullies. Maybe because I don’t like ignorance. Maybe because this site is full of arguments because people refuse to think before they decide to disagree. Maybe because I don’t want to stand by while someone is put down for no reason at all.

Now I’ve given you an answer, you explain why you felt the need to “correct” someone who wasn’t wrong and had politely made and completely reasonable point? What did you gain from that?

This is a discussion thread. I merely pointed out that it’s the relatives who suffer in cases like these as they usually end up raising the money to pay the costs. Others made the same point. My point was reasonable and polite too! In no way am I ignorant and rude, certainly not a bully, and I’m at a loss to see why you came out with this outburst!

I was reading my policy today by chance and noted that it specifically excluded trying to move from one balcony to another, at any height

DS has gone travelling and we went through the policy together - just so he could see what he was and wasn't insured for. I think balconies were in there as well.

I know that people do dangerous things when on holiday. I used to do scuba diving - and was reasonably experienced - I "think" I was covered when I did some deep wreck diving on holiday when I was younger - this was before a depth limit appeared on insurance policies.

I hope the lad is ok. But people do need to be aware of what the policy says.

Surprised to see the ABI endorsing this story and urging people to get insured using an example of something that is explicitly NOT covered by travel insurance policies. In my experience of press office work we’d steer well clear of stuff like this.

A GHIC probably would cover him - it covered DH’s skiing accident years ago (we did have very comprehensive travel insurance which covered flights home/hotel for me until he was fit to travel, and which certainly would have covered the hospital stay, but didn’t end up needing to as GHIC already covered it).

I’m pretty sure you can apply retrospectively though, so his family could apply now and at least have his future costs covered.

They have also started a petition calling on the government to make it a legal requirement for everyone who goes abroad to take out a travel insurance policy.

This makes me laugh. Some people really do want the government to wipe their arses for them.

I don't really understand all the comments around him being young and foolish either. He's 24 not 17! Perfectly old enough to both get travel insurance and not be stupid enough to attempt this. This is what mollycoddling your kids will do, 24 year old man-child.