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Going the Extra Miles: Air Evac Membership Brings Injured Missionary Home, and Then Some
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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (March 6, 2006) – When a fellow Rotarian suggested an Air Ambulance Card membership, Mary Stenseth bought it. She had yet to realize, however, just exactly why she needed it.

For five years, Stenseth has traveled to Thailand helping students as a Rotary International Volunteer. Before taking off for the 2004 trip, a fellow member suggested Stenseth purchase an Air Ambulance Card. The membership allows injured travelers to fly to the medical facility of their choice if they are injured more than 150 miles from home. The $195 annual membership fee proved to be a valuable investment years later.

Over the New Year holiday, Stenseth decided to cap off her mission trip to Thailand with a personal trip to Bali. While sightseeing in an outdoor market, Stenseth tripped on a boulder in the road, and broke her hip. A local ambulance ferried her to an Indonesian hospital. It was the last place she wanted to have the surgery she needed. “Immediately I thought, ‘My gosh, this is what this membership is for’,” said Stenseth.

“Not only did we get Mary to where she needed to be, but having this membership saved her over $110,000,” said Sam Jackson, president of Air Ambulance Card. Within minutes of getting her call, Jackson and the Air Ambulance Card team were making arrangements to have a jet equipped with state-of-the-art medical equipment and a highly trained aero medical team dispatched to transport Stenseth from her hospital bed in Indonesia.

While many air evacuation plans would have transported her only to the “nearest appropriate facility,” which in this case would likely have been a two-hour flight to Singapore, Air Ambulance Card transported Stenseth to the hospital of her choice. Stenseth wanted to be treated at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, a 26-and-ahalf-hour trip from Bali. “We even made a fuel stop in my hometown of San Jose,” said Stenseth, “but it was important to me to have the surgery at Mayo.”

Air Ambulance Card provides travelers with hospital-to-hospital Prepaid Air Ambulance Service domestically and abroad. The membership program offers services for a period of one year to families or individuals, and corporate accounts. Air Ambulance Card memberships are available to residents of the U.S. and Canada and cost $195 per year for individuals and $295 per year for families. For more information visit www.AirAmbulanceCard.com.

[PDF] Bali Transport