A Calgary man who suffered a heart attack on a tropical vacation more than two weeks ago and required emergency life-saving surgery is still waiting for a hospital bed to come home.
Despite having travel insurance, his family has been forced to pay over $100,000 in medical bills and travel expenses.
Michael Smyrl, 70, suffered a massive heart attack on November 5, just five days after a 20-day trip to the Panama Canal with his wife.
The ship arrived in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico the next day, where Smyrl was admitted to a local hospital and immediately underwent surgery, during which he suffered two more heart attacks.
The surgery was successful and he was discharged from the ICU on 8 November.
He recovered in hospital and was cleared to fly home on a medically assisted flight on November 16, but delays continued because the insurance company, World Travel Protection, was unable to secure a hospital bed in Alberta.
“Our insurance company works with a bed-finder company that is in touch with all the hospitals and we’re trying to reach out to Edmonton, even Red Deer – just get us to the hospital there. There was nowhere to go, so it became problematic and frustrating,” said Kim Cameron, Smyrl’s stepdaughter.
“And (Monday), I reached out to the insurance company again and said we’re in a very real situation where the hospital is saying, ‘Pay your bill and get out because you’re not sick anymore and you’re not sick. ‘ I need to be here.”
Cameron flew to Cabo San Lucas herself to advocate for her parents, but the Mexican hospital told her that her father had to pay his entire bill before she could be discharged.
“The hospital itself will not deal with insurance 100 percent of the time. They will only deal with the patient. (They) will only take payment directly from the patient,” he said.
“Insurance companies are selling us this almost false sense of security. We think we can go on vacation – that it will be covered and everything will be fine. That’s not OK. It’s best to make sure you’re You would have access to, in this case, $100,000, and that doesn’t count hospital bills. It doesn’t count bills for medications, food or hotels.”
Insurance company informed by bed-finder that there are no beds available in the hospital
CTV News contacted World Travel Protection to ask for details regarding Smyrl’s coverage, but did not receive a response.
But email documents of her correspondence with World Travel Protection were obtained from Cameroon.
The documents sent by a case manager on November 19 read:
“Good morning Kim,
“I sincerely apologize for this ongoing delay. I just spoke to our bed-finding team in Alberta. They have no update this morning and they won’t call us back for another update until tomorrow.” I know how frustrating this all is, and I am very sorry for it. This is an unfortunate situation and I wish for a quick outcome, however, please know that we are working hard to expedite this process. We are making every possible effort to help you and want to get you all home as soon as possible.
“We will keep you updated on the progress of this bed. Please feel free to contact us anytime.”
CTV News was unable to identify the team that found the beds and those details were not released to Cameron.
Smyrel is still recovering and is not physically able to grant an interview with CTV News.
For now, his medically assisted flight to Calgary is scheduled for Thursday, but once he gets there, it’s still unknown whether he’ll have a hospital bed or whether he’ll be forced to return home. Will go.
“He’s going to have to be accompanied by a medical nurse. He’s going to have to have his blood saturation checked. They’re going to have to have oxygen at home,” Cameron said.
“His family doctor, who we had some phone calls and appointments with, also wasn’t very comfortable with him not being in the hospital. He’s had a lot of surgeries and still has a lot to do.”
AHS confirms hospital beds are available in Calgary area
CTV News also contacted Alberta Health Services (AHS) for comment on whether hospital beds would be available for Smyrel.
In a statement, AHS says it has the resources and health care teams available to care for all of its patients’ needs and currently has available beds and capacity in the Calgary area.
“When a family requests an out-of-country transfer, and provided the patient is stable enough to be transferred, we make every effort to work with health care and health insurance providers to facilitate the transfer of the patient back to Alberta. Will try,” read the statement.
“Patient care and safety is of the utmost importance and AHS works diligently to ensure the safest, most appropriate environment and care team is available before receiving Alberta patients from outside the country.”
AHS was unable to speak to the specifics of Smyrl’s case due to patient confidentiality agreements, but confirmed that efforts will continue to get him home to Alberta through a medical transfer.
Canadian travel insurance generally will not cover medical bills outside Canada
Onanta Forbes is a local travel expert in Calgary with nearly 40 years of experience in the industry.
She says her best advice to travelers is to make sure they buy travel insurance to protect themselves from financial investments, but she also cautions that there are different terms and conditions for trips outside the country. Are.
“One thing to note is that the Canadian government will not pay your medical bills outside of Canada, and your regional or provincial insurance will cover little or nothing in relation to travel interruption or medical bills,” Forbes said.
“Some people look to their travel credit cards to cover that as well, but that doesn’t really cover your actual bill. For example, like in the United States, your bill could go up by as much as Your travel credit card may not be covered.”
Forbes says it’s best to know what type of travel policy you’re dealing with before you book your vacation.
He said, “It’s really important that you read the fine print because not all insurance is the same and not all existing coverage is the same. You may want to consider getting that money back through insurance after the fact. Might have to.”
“So, you don’t want to pay a huge bill because no matter what the amount you have to pay, it may not be accessible.”
CTV News also contacted Desjardins Insurance as an expert for more information and was provided the following details:
“If you are hospitalized while outside your home province, the insurer will usually pay the hospital bill directly to the hospital, although some hospitals may require the patient to pay immediately,” the statement said. “
“Every policy is different. That’s why people who have travel insurance should contact their insurer to find out everything about coverage.”
