Travel Insurance Probably Saved Our Son's Life

Travel Insurance was one of the topics of a company gathering a few weeks ago.  We had just published the article, “...Travel Insurance is Your Friend” and Reed, Lindsey’s husband, mentioned that his friend Kevin had an amazing story.  Kevin and I were connected and it truly is an amazing story.  Thank you for sharing!  SS

2011 started with a bang!  Kristen and I won round trip flights to anywhere in the continental US/Central America/Caribbean.  She was about 2 months pregnant at the time and the flights had to be used prior to January 2012.  We debated whether to travel before or after our child was born and given no complications with the pregnancy, we decided to travel before. We settled on Aruba, as anywhere in Central America may have required inoculations for malaria, and we found that the medical facilities there would be better in the event of an emergency.
 
One of the things we discussed was travel insurance.  At first, I thought it would be a waste of money. There were no complications with our pregnancy and I was certainly healthy.  However, as I considered it more, I decided that in the event something horrible happened, it would be good to have. We bought a policy that included trip interruption, trip cancellation, $50,000 in emergency medical coverage for each of us, and $1,000,000 in emergency medical transportation…among other things.
 
Three days before departure, we had a regular (29 and a half weeks) prenatal checkup.  Everything was fine and we were told to go have fun.  "Can we snorkel?"  "Sure, knock yourselves out!" 
 
We arrived on April 30 and it was wonderful!  We walked around the island, napped, drank plenty of water, snorkeled occasionally, and took in the sights.  On the afternoon of Wednesday May 4, Kristen told me that she thought we might need to go to the hospital.  She was beginning to have contractions, and they were getting worse. We thought they were Braxton Hicks, but better safe than sorry.  We borrowed a car and went to the hospital.  She was given medication through an IV, which settled her contractions.  At that point, I went downstairs and contacted the travel insurance company. 

Over the next hour and a half, we began building a case and sharing information to formulate a plan. The insurance company worked with the doctor to understand and confirm the diagnosis and treatment and then worked with the airlines to get us home.  Unfortunately, due to limited traffic in and out of Aruba, the airline we had used would not be able to get us back to the United States before our original departure date…May 7th.  The insurance company purchased tickets from a different airline for departure on May 5th and ultimately on May 6th.

Travel Insurance Covered/Reimbursed:
2 first class flights from Aruba to Atlanta/Atlanta to Greensboro (well over $2,000)
The remainder of the trip that we did not get to enjoy ($350)
$100 cab fare I paid in traveling from the apartment to the hospital in Aruba
$300 cell phone bill for calls to the insurance company
All medical bills in Aruba…ultimate cost could have been about $5,000
 
Given our condition, we were seated on very comfortable business/first class flights on the way from Aruba to Atlanta, and then from Atlanta to Greensboro.  When we arrived in Atlanta, contractions began again.  Medications had been given by the doctor in Aruba to prevent contractions until we saw our personal OB/GYN.  Unfortunately, they did not work.  We realized that after departing Atlanta and about 10,000 feet in the air.  It was a  very intense 45-minute flight and when we landed, we were met by EMTs (not to mention fire and police professionals) who got us into an ambulance and to Winston-Salem, where our son (2 lbs 13 oz ) was born 15 minutes after our arrival...  9 and a half weeks early!

 If not for the travel insurance, we would either have been stuck in Aruba for several weeks, or potentially airlifted to Colombia, which had the nearest medical facility capable of taking care of an infant < 32 weeks gestation.  Additionally, we would likely not have received anywhere CLOSE to the quality of care we received at our hospital here in the United States.  Having travel insurance probably saved our son’s life.  KS