Close Call: A Medevac Marketer’s First Hand Travel Illness Story |
Mon, Mar 23rd, 2009 at 7:36 am |
I’ve always believed in Air Ambulance Card. Always known that if I got hurt on the road, I’d rather be home than in some random hospital. But it’s never scarier than when it happens to your young daughter. Last week, while on spring break in South Florida, we took the kids on a trek through Lion Country Safari. When our four year old daughter Phoebe couldn’t turn her neck to the see the lions, we knew something was wrong. By the time we got to the elephants, she was burning up with fever and limp as a wet rag. A quick search on the iPhone convinced my wife and I that Phoebe had Disney-Contracted Menengitis.
The next search found us a small hospital a few miles away. Amazingly, they had a Pediatric ER. A sharp doctor quickly diagnosed her with a peritonsillar abscess, which in kids can cut off the airway. A CAT Scan confirmed it. While the doctor was hopeful we could treat it with IV Antibiotics (and three lovely days in a South Florida hospital) there was a chance they would have to operate. That’s when I called my colleagues at Air Ambulance Card. They would have flown us home on a medical jet to be treated by our own doctors and recover at home.
Turns out, the drugs did the trick… but had our little girl needed surgery, there was no way I wanted it done there. Fine hospital, but not our pediatrician, not the Children’s Hospital where our other kids have been so kindly and competently cared for.
A trip to Florida is not exactly an exotic adventure… not something that strikes fear into the hearts of travelers. We know many people buy Medical Evacuation coverage when flying overseas, but our experience demonstrates how valuable this product is even a state or two away. For less than $300 a year, we are covered for all of our travel, and if we’d needed the flight, we wouldn’t have paid a dime. Thank goodness we didn’t use it, but it was sure nice to know we had it.
Atticus Rominger
Public Relations