Worst thing to happen during a holiday?

[OneFancyTealQuail]

My car breaking down suddenly
Losing my wallet

Tripping over a footpath on day 2 of a 3 day trip and spending about 12 hours in an ED because I’m on Warfarin and have severe osteoporosis and managed to bash my knee and head off the footpath! Had X-rays and head CT.

Being seriously injured… not me but I’ve seen it happen. Or worse… again only read about it in the media, but I was worried when my kids went off on their first mates’ holidays…. Fortunately they all came back in one piece.

Terrorist attack on tourists not far from us. We ended up under armed guard unable to leave the hotel.
A very stressful time was had.

DH becoming ill with a UTI a day in to a trip to the US. He spend a lot of time in ER or asleep and came home early with a catheter in place. It took a year to resolve with an operation.

The volcano erupting and being stuck abroad for an extra week when we'd only budgeted for 1 week was pretty crap. We just about managed by putting an extra weeks accomodation and food on credit card but there were families stuck unable to afford an extra week. Met some sleeping on the floor at the airport. Some feeding only the kids cuz they couldn't afford to eat out for everyone. All sorts of problems. Insurance doesn't pay out till after so no real help in that moment.

Breaking your neck and spending 6 weeks in hospital. Not me, my DH, bf at the time. But that’s when he proposed to me, he jokes as he thought he was going to need someone to push him round in a wheelchair as he was paralysed at the time. He’s fine now, that was 25 years ago and the doctors in Tenerife saved his life.

My family were on holiday camping in France in the 1990s and a close family member was in a catastrophic car crash and in ICU back home. No-one was able to reach us (the days before movies or reliable campsite offices!) so the family at home had alerts put out on the BBC World Service until my parents heard one (and drove all night through rural France to the earliest available ferry). My relative didn’t survive, sadly, but my parents were at least able to see him one last time before he died.

We were all a bit put off holidays for some time. 🙁 Bit of a downer, but the average losing the wallet or having one’s cards frozen (both of which have happened to me) is not all that bad in the grand scheme of things!

My mum once fell and broke her wrist badly in the depths of southern Italy, where the local
hospital was a private Catholic hospital like something out of the 1950s. They set it so badly she had to have it broken and reset by the NHS on getting home. That one was pretty bad too!

People who have bad accidents and have poor or no insurance to get them home. Then set up a go fund me and expect others to fund it.

not quite what you mean OP but that always amazes me people do this!

I was treated to a surprise trip to NYC for my 40th Birthday. I was allowed to choose what I did on the actual day . I chose to spend an hour on the ice skating rink in Central Park. All was going well and I was very slowly going around the edge just to say I’d done it . Cue bastard child who fancied himself as Torville or Dean who came at me at high speed in a crouching position and hit me in my knees. I catapulted into the air and came down with a splat . Cue blue lights to a hospital where the ED was patrolled by a cop with a giant gun . My DH was allowed to visit for 15 minutes per hour . I meanwhile was filled with morphine and sent for some exceedingly painful X-rays on a shattered shoulder. High on morphine and unable to manage my own trousers I managed to pee all over them on a toilet trip . Next time DH was allowed in he found me sobbing and smelling highly of wee . Was supposed to have a limo ride with champagne that night instead I had emergency surgery while still in my smelly jeans ! Oh the fun that all was . Was discharged next morning and proceeded to vomit all the way back to our hotel after my morphine fest . Thankfully I can laugh now .

The time my passport was stolen did sort of ruin my mini break to Madrid because I had to spend the rest of it hanging out at the consulate to get a replacement

9/11

Earthquake whilst on holiday in Eilat (Israel) which caused quite a bit of damage to the hotel and disrupted things for a couple of days. Mirrors falling off walls, balcony doors falling out of their runners, large windows in reception/dining room shattering etc.

Whilst in Egypt there was the massacre at Queen Hatsheput's temple which meant our tour to that side of the river Nile scheduled for a couple of days later was cancelled and other excursions were shortened/changed to avoid risks. We even had armed guards in pickup trucks protecting our tour coaches in some risky areas.