Roam Right Insurance paid my big claim!

It's a long story.

I fell and broke my hip in a remote region of eastern Bhutan. OnCall, the emergency assistance subcontractor Roam Right, helped to coordinate my care and transport over the next two weeks, under the supervision of my partner, who was not on the trip with me, but home in NY.

Being far from home, with limited cell service and Internet, in a country with only the minimum of care outside the capital (there were wild dogs roaming through the clinic), was daunting. Knowing that I was seriously hurt and several flights from home (Thumpu to Calcutta, To Bangkok, to Seoul, to NY) was daunting. And I was 12 hours by car to Thimphu!

To avoid that, I was helicoptered from the clinic ($8,800), to surgery and a hospital stay in Bhutans capital city ($450.00).

The Insurance company agreed (!) that I needed to be moved to a hospital with a higher level of care. It took the help of the US embassy, working with the subcontracting medical jet people to get me out of Bhutan. The Bhutanese government will not let you leave that country on a plane unless it has a Bhutanese navigator and it can take five days for that to happen. A less healthy person than I might not make it that long. I was in a hospital with no nursing care (no post operative care at all after my hip surgery. My IV didn't work and I was getting no supplemental oxygen even though my sats were very low as the altitude was very high.) I was put in a large ward of men and women immediately after surgery, No food, potable water, towels, SOAP, TP, pillows, sheets (our tour guide provided this!! YAY). My 70 year old traveling companion was told that she had to sleep on the floor next to me and tend to me, 24/7, this included bedpan duty. There was one shared bedpan and NO privacy when I had to "go". I couldn't walk as I had an epidural instead of general anesthesia). Even then, there was but the one toilet in another Ward.

Fortunately, my surgeon did a good job stabilizing my injury. He was a very competent man working under challenging circumstances. By a miracle I didn't pick up an infection. The Bhutanese people are quite kind and gentle. But western medicine is stil pretty new there. And it's not a service culture. Nor is cleanliness a core cultural component.

Once my beautiful medical jet transported me to Bangkok to an international hospital ($55,000 with a doctor and nurse ) things seemed to changed for the better. Except it turned out that the first surgery wasn't quite right (long story). Had a second surgery where they moved around the pins in my hip. By now, my girlfriend had been attending to me for a week left, and my partner flew in from New York to stay with me during my recovery. The Bumrungrad hospital was heavenly. The surgeons, nurses, rehab were top notch. That surgery and week in the hospital was about $14,000.

Lastly, my travel nurse, arranged by Oncall, came into Bangkok to assess my readiness to travel home. I got my fit to fly from the doctor, ordering a first class seat ($7000.) and my nurse was with me in first class as was my partner. Flew from Bangkok to Dubai to New York on Emerites. While I was too miserable to eat or drink, I was monitored and helped to the bathroom by my nurse. We even took a shower. She arranged all the wheelchairs and transfers.

Lastly, they arranged for our car service home.

It has been a long road to recovery, but it has been uneventful.

All made much better knowing that we are not out of pocket for small fortune !

I am happy that this turned out all right for you. What an ordeal! At least you are financially whole.

Glad it all worked out for you.....such an awful ordeal.

This a WOW ordeal!

Thank goodness you are okay. Thank you for sharing your experience. It's good to know that the right travel insurance will be there when you need it.