Parent in icu abroad

[ny20005]

My dm took unwell abroad with no travel insurance. Luckily she's covered for eu emergency treatment.

I flew over & spent 12 days there when she was life threatening. She's still in icu but no longer life threatening (for now). We just lurch from day to day with improvement & then set back. She's been in icu for 3 weeks now with no end in sight. I don't speak the language so difficult to get medical updates unless we have a family member there & able to visit.

No idea how long it will be till she's ready to come home & able to fly commercial flight or if the hospital will keep her until she is at that stage.

Family dynamics weren't the best & are now much worse. Siblings all in different parts of the world & while none of us want to leave her in a foreign country on her own, realistically we can't afford to stay in hotels & leave jobs & our own families for long periods of time either.

She's not helping the situation & has actually made things worse for herself to cope when she does get home, it's just so frustrating & we all don't know what to do for the best

I have no advice but so sorry that you are in this position, that sounds really tough

Sorry to hear this. WhenI was a child my gfather had a heart attack in Poland and had to be sent home on a kind of air ambulance - is there anything like that covered on the insurance?

If you read the OP, she has no insurance

Oh wow OP, obviously of no help to you but what an absolute foolish thing to go abroad with the insurance. Im not sure what you can practically do TBH apart from hope she recovers well enough to be able to fly home.....I cant begin to imagine the cost of needing to arrange a special flight home for her.

I know, air ambulance would cost thousands 🙈. I'm not the sibling who books her flights & they didn't think she'd need it. She's in her 80's ffs

We flew my dad back after a stroke and heart attack from Spain. No insurance and it cost £12,500 from Spain - and that was over 15 years ago!
Didn't find the healthcare there that good either - shiny new hospital but family take on a lot of the nursing role. We wanted him back here as soon as possible and though he did pass away after another stroke, the care here was wonderful and respectful.
I hope she's getting good care and is on the way home soon.

OP I sympathise as I went through something similar years ago when my parent had a stroke in Spain.

The care she had was incredible and we had access to an interpreter.

It was a horrifically stressful experience but everything was funded by the insurance and in the end totalled 250k including medivac back to the UK.

I've no idea what happens if she doesn't have insurance though. Would the consulate be able to advise?

Oh my, OP, how horribly stressful for you. Your DM (and sibling) were so ridiculously irresponsible not booking insurance. I will never understand why people don't buy holiday insurance.
Looks like your sibling may need to get a crowdfunded started.

We've not spoken to the consulate yet. Kind of waiting to see what happens first.

Best case scenario is that she'll be kept in hospital until she's fit to fly a normal flight.

Medium case, she needs some sort of convalescent care over there that we'd need to pay for or worse, she passes away & we'd have to get her cremated rather than repatriate & even bringing home ashes costs a few thousand.

She's getting excellent care, that's one thing I can't fault. They do speak English, some better than others but when I call, I don't always get to speak to someone who knows the full picture & my mum tends to lie / sugar coat so her version can't be relied upon either

Have you checked to make sure she doesn't have freebie insurance with a bank account?

That rarely covers over 80s.

Can you tell us where she is? Lots of us including me live in EU countries so may be able to advise better if we know.

Think it's unlikely they will keep her in hospital until fit to fly given she is in her eighties and it's likely to take time. But they would send her to somewhere she would have convalescence.

3 weeks in ICU is also going to be hideously expensive. Probably hundreds of thousands of pounds. I think only the initial stabilisation is covered by EHIC card. But I may be wrong.

Cost? It can be one of the most expensive bits of the holiday if your elderly with multiple conditions. When you read the PP above with a £250k bill, you can see why.

@MereDintofPandiculation of course it's cost. But the cost of insurance should be factored in when weighing up if you can afford the holiday. It's not just older people though. I've seen countless Crowdfunders by younger people who've decided that insurance wasn't for them and ended up having an accident on holiday. Often it will be because they've taken part in an activity such as skiing. It's just stupidity. This also quite a lot of posts on here from people who've booked the holiday but hadn't got around to booking insurance then something has gone wrong so they can't go but can't claim on non-existent insurance.

Luckily I've had it confirmed by ehic in her own country that her hospital care is covered. She's in a Germany.

My sibling & dm know now they've royally screwed up by not having insurance. I honestly don't know what went through their mind, sibling is normally on the ball with that sort of thing so it never even occurred to me that she wouldn't have it. They better have a credit card with a big credit limit cos it won't be split between the siblings, that's for sure.

She didn't have any health conditions before this so it's only her age that was the issue. Up till 75, she had an annual policy.

I'd never advocate going without insurance but I understand why people do. The only insurance we've gone without is to cover cutting short our holiday because of illness/death of a close relative - haven't found an insurance that will cover for my 100 year old DF. Just accept we'd have to absorb that cost ourselves.