How do I get us all home?!

[CeciliaMars]

I am in Europe on holiday with my husband and 3 primary school age kids. We have a hire car that only he can drive. He has badly injured his hip, he’s been to hospital and is on strong painkillers and has crutches. He can barely walk and is in agony. We are meant to be flying home on Friday. How do we get the hire car to the airport and all of us into the airport? I am going to request assistance once we get to the airport. Also at the other end, how do I get him to our car? We are a shuttle bus away from our car. He literally can’t walk and is in agony. I truly can’t figure out the logistics of this.

Its odd that with insurance it takes a week for an MRI when you don’t need to use state hospitals.

This is very common with decentralised care, unfortunately. I find it absolutely mad as well. However, OP, just in case you're in a country like the one I live in, don't be afraid to go back to the hospital/emergency room and ask whether they have MRI machines there and explain the urgency. And/or ask the insurance company to deal with it and make arrangements. When DH broke his foot several years ago, the earliest MRI appointment I could find was 6 weeks later, and when we eventually went back to the hospital with the images they said "Well you should have come back here!!" we were baffled because we just assumed because they told us to find our own MRI place that meant they didn't have one. There seems to be an inherent assumption that people will understand how to navigate the system, even when you are obviously not from the place, which made me think perhaps the system in the UK where everything is centralised and you get told where to go when, is the one which is unusual. It may help to explain that you do not know how to navigate the local health system because in the UK everything is centralised and you don't have much if any choice, so please could they explain step by step what to do and what to do in case something doesn't work or isn't possible.

At least where we are, there are no private clinics for things like this so having private travel insurance wouldn't help overly with the speed of imaging.

Quite often it’s the only available option! I know this as I have an automatic only licence.

I fell on holiday, lone traveller, Spain. Was in an upstairs apartment. Had to hobble to local emergency care then get taxi to hospital, who casted my leg but told me to go buy some crutches but not to walk on the cast. 🤪
Rang the insurance company. They arranged flight home 2 days early as I emphasised risk to me being upstairs alone on crutches (in case of fire ) unable to get food etc.
They got me a flight to a city further away from my home but it was a day earlier flight. Arranged on the plane that i had 3 seats to rest my leg on. Coincidentally there was another lady on the flight who had broken her leg, had had surgery and also had 3 seats to rest her leg on. They also arranged a wheelchair to take me and my bags to my taxi on arrival and taxi me home over 2 hours away! From what I recall I needed a letter to prove i could fly. Needed my ehic card for all the health stuff. The insurance company were great, no complaints but needed the letter from the hospital to prove i had a medical issue.

I'd be concerned about husbands fitness to fly.

Does he need an 'ambulift' to board?

How would he cope in an emergency where the aircraft needs to be evacuated?

Few obstacles are insuperable but if special provision is needed it can take time to organise.

I can drive my own car locally but there is literally no way I could drive a strange car in a foreign country

Same. Also, I can't drive my husband's car. If I can reach the pedals I can't reach the handbrake and if I can reach the handbrake I can't reach the pedals.
I'm not all that short either.

Because the reason for not being able to drive it, effects what solutions can be given.

No it doesn’t?

It just enables people to sneer and suggest that the op needs to get over feeling unable to drive abroad.

Instead of kicking someone when they’re down, why not just proceed on the premise that driving the hire car isn’t an option that’s on the table?

OP people are just trying to help so Qs about driving well meant. Best of luck.

Well if he can drive their car home, he can drive the hire car a couple of hours earlier 🤪

She obviously just doesn’t want to drive the hire car. As others have said, getting a fit to fly certificate is the priority really.

Can you see if there are any local mum facebook pages or local groups for the town?

You might be able to hire someone to drive the hire car back for you. Years ago a man went into a local shop here and asked the shop owner to help him find someone to drive him to the airport. It worked !

Many years ago and in the UK so may not apply to you but DF broke his wrist on holiday so couldn't drive, DM no licence so couldn't help. The AA towed them home soo i don't know if something like that's possible if you have breakdown cover?

I’m sure the car situation will get sorted one way or another, it won’t be the first time this has happened to the hire car company. As far as the flights he will need a fit to fly certificate probably (check!) issued within 24 hours of the flight leaving. If he cannot manage sitting in a standard seat your insurance may arrange an alternative flight, all depends on what he can manage. Request assistance with wheelchair for both ends including the lift if there isn’t an air bridge. At the U.K. end you can fetch your car and bring it to the pick up zone if he can’t manage the shuttle bus

Sorry this has happened to you all. Not a great situation to be on, on holiday. I would personally ring the hire car company and ask if the car can be collected (they will most likely charge a fee, but what other choice do you have?) Then get a taxi to the airport, ask for assistance at the airport (maybe they have wheelchairs or something similar?) Then when you get back to the UK, you go and pick your car up and drive back to the terminal to collect him.

How?

OP If the car is big enough (although I guess it is not) ask the car hire company if when they collect the car they can take you all to the airport. The car was due to be dropped off there so maybe they can. Some insurers do cover the cost of a car being recovered, it depends on the small print of both your travel insurers and the hire car insurance.

Request wheelchair assistance both ends. Be warned that you wont necessarily be able to travel with him as wheelchair transport can go by a different route to baggage reclaim where you will meet up again. They may let you push the wheelchair, if so it may be quicker. He can expect to have to wait for the lift down if the airport is one where you use steps for the plane. Also if you have a long wait for the flight no-one will help you get him to and from a toilet. They'll just park his wheelchair and come back later.

Is there anyone who could fly out to help you? Getting 3 primary age kids, all your luggage and an injured husband through an airport is not going to be fun, without the other issues.

I have flown with an injury and no fit to fly certificate but you may need one.

Keep every single receipt and make sure you get them. Tips will not be covered unless the driver gives you a receipt that just says an amount.

If your travel insurers are not being helpful ask to speak to someone more senior.

Who were they out of interest? Always good to have recommendations. I've used Post Office insurance and they were also great but didn't require them to do anything but pay the hospital bill.

Nightmare OP, so sorry. I know you’re understandably, desperate to get you all home but I agree with FoxandDuck, you need to start being a LOT pushier with your travel insurance. You’ve paid for their services, make them start working for you. This situation is exactly why we fork out for these expensive policies.

For all its issues, this is where ChatGPT can be a god send, you can feed all the relevant information in there, policy, provider, injury, and it will give you a list of what they should be doing and it will help you formulate a plan to get it, and how to approach the company for the most efficient way to achieve it. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

Once you have an idea of what needs to happen next, you can make a call on whether it’d be helpful for someone to come out to help you with the logistics (if it’s possible). As a PP said, it might be worth calling the hospital back about MRIs. I’d also ask to speak to the hotel manager to see if they have any advice due to prior guest experiences, I’m sure they’ve seen it all.

Do make sure your DH has adequate pain relief too, especially for flying, sounds like he couldn’t take an unadapted flight and will need assistance/wheelchairs/adapated taxis. Insurance should Iiase with the car hire, so ask them to take that over. Other good advice is to keep all receipts, even hospital food. If the kids are too young to be left unsupervised/oldest in charge, ask reception if they have a nanny service (also keep receipts for this).

Good luck!

Probably asking why you can't drive the hire car because you couldn't figure out to call the hire company and book a taxi all on your own.

So more than possible you're missing the obvious there too.

I also managed to fly with an injury and no fit to fly certificate (it was 20 years ago so rules may have changed, and I was young and naive and didn't know it was a thing as neither hospital or insurance mentioned it). In my case I had a broken arm and damaged ligaments in my knee and travelled a bit over a week after (planned). The knee injury didn't stop me walking though. I will say that while the airline were great and made sure I got an aisle seat on the right side so no one was pressing against my arm, I still had to sit carefully to make sure I didn't get bashed by the trolley, people walking past. I will also say it was a 7 hour flight and even stretching my knee into the aisle / lots of getting up it was very painful by the end.
Op I also get the driving thing, as I discovered when I drove abroad that I just can't flip the dimensions right and really struggled to stay in the right lane which isn't safe for anyone. Needless to say I pulled over as soon as I safely could and made DH take over. Maybe if I did it more I'd get used to it, but I'm not risking anyone's safety to find out!

This. Clearly the issue isn’t at the UK side. I’m reading this as OP can’t drive for some reason, which could be anything from simply can’t drive, is disabled in some way, banned from driving temporarily, has limits on her license if she has one etc, and can easily sort out help with the car on the home side.

We don't know if it has anything to do with her not wanting to drive abroad? You're assuming that.

Because she hasn't said!

It's quite obvious.

m fil broke his leg on holiday insurance sorted out the new return flight he had 3 seats to himself and transport aswell

hopefully your insurance will pull their finger out dont try and do it yourself

It’s not irrelevant ! Was he insured for however he injured his hip, ?Paid insurance for potentially risky activities , otherwise insurers may not pay out.
Also re PP’s post. If someone flies out to drive the car will they be able to get insurance as it’s in the husband’s name.
Absolute nightmare for OP, so hope she gets help soon.

Arrange a wheelchair. You will be able to get them in the airports as well as assistance for passengers with limited mobility.