AKLDUBFlyer

Hi.

Many of us travel alone, are self-employed, etc....and can have serious health problems while travelling. For example, 6 months ago I was on a CO flight and after suffering chest pains I was taken off the plane to a local hospital after landing in EWR. I live in New Zealand, was traveling alone with no cell phone that worked in the US or easy way to contact my wife or family in NZ (who would have been of limited assistance). I managed to contact my family by getting a nurse to send an email to my wife....she rang the hospital and managed to contact me. Obviously, my wife was very concerned that I was on the other side of the world with no one to assist me except for rotation staff at the hospital.

Further, I was discharged from the hospital, ordered to get on the next flight that I felt comfortable with back to NZ to see my doctor here, handed loads of prescriptions and provided with one dose of some major pain killers. Being a road warrior, I went to the nearest hotel to the airport that would have concierge services, etc.....so that they could assist. Alas, it was the weekend and the hotel concierge was not working. Getting the prescription filled was a nightmare (I had no NJ prescription card, no NJ address, etc....) and while the hotel staff did an outstanding job while short staffed, this was not something that they were prepared for. All worked out well in the end, despite numerous obstacles, much more pain than necessary, and stress for both me and my family.

My suggestion is that a forum be established for travel emergencies and a list of FT'ers that may be available to assist by city/metro area/airport. While I know that many of us travel and are not at our home bases very often, a list of FT'ers near EWR who would have been willing to assure my wife that I was OK, assist with prescription filling, and generally having someone to talk to would have been worth more money than I will ever have. It is thought that if there were, say, 10 FT'ers around EWR willing to do this, at least one of them may be around and could answer a PM and offer some assistance, even if it is making a few phone calls.

This is just a thought borne out of my own problems when ill on the road and a long way from home. It seems to me that FT would be an ideal forum for experienced travellers to assist each other when health or other emergencies occur. It may be used/accessed infrequently (hopefully), but I think it would be a good service to offer in a forum.

Many thanks,

AKLDUBFlyer

bhatnasx

I'm glad to hear you are better - medical emergencies while traveling can be tough. I was in a motorcycle accident in Thailand several years back on an island off of an island off the mainland with no hospital care on our island. I ended up self-prescribing my own meds (luckily, you can do that in Thailand) and popping my own wrist back into place & making a brace from an Ace bandage & some siding off the bungalow I was staying in. I had both my arms in homemade bandages that a traveling buddy changed for me (as I was unable to change them myself - I owe that guy - it was pretty disgusting).

When I got back to the US a week later, I went straight to the hospital from the airport & luckily I had set my wrist correctly (thank you, Boy Scouts First Aid merit badge) and braced it okay so it didn't need to be re-broken to set properly.

I'm not sure we need a forum for that specifically - I think that a this need is addressed in the CommunityBuzz forum. We've seen FTers help other FTer with this sort of thing in the past - rather than an actual forum, it may be worth discussing this idea with the CommunityBuzz moderators and maybe starting an organized thread on the subject.

djk7

I'll echo that I haven't seen enough demand for this to warrant a forum. Travel emergency threads (not necessarily medical, such as passport issues or misconnects to a cruise) pop up occasionally on TravelBuzz. I think that is a great place for them, they get a lot of visibility when people need answers quickly.

Spiff

I quite agree.

Efrem

I tend to agree that posts on this ought to be posted in other, active forums where they'll be seen more quickly, as time is often of the essence when something in this category happens. If there were a special forum, it would tend to be visited by people who have emergencies, but probably not by many of the FTers who are in a position to do something about them.

lin821

Good to know you are back on your feet again.

It goes without saying how important it is to make sure one has medical coverage and get emergency assistance when needed. Before leaving home country, better have it handy the global network & contact info from your health insurance/plan. If the travel expenses are charged to CC, certain cards offer travel emergency services as well. Those contact can be useful at times.

A former colleague of mine was rushed to a hospital in California while on a group tour about 2 decades ago. She accidentally put the wrong contact lens solution into her eyes, thinking it was saline. Totally unexpected and unprepared for the burning eyes. The ER visit cost her close to $1K, I think. She said she kept getting bills from the hospital after return home. If she had had the insurance contact/info with her while in the States, thing might have been much streamlined.

I think this may be a good start to get the ball rolling. To be honest, I am not sure where is the best forum to have a compiled list of (volunteer) local FTers contact info.

AKLDUBFlyer

While I had travel insurance and health coverage, it would have been good to have someone around who could help out fairly urgently, especially in communication with my family and the prescriptions.

I think that putting this on the Travel Buzz forum could work. There could be a master thread and a list of cities on the first part of it. One could then click on the city/airport code and than get a list of the handles of people willing to assist there....or it could be a sticky....I don't know about the logistics and will leave that for the board or mods to consider I just wanted to throw the idea out there, as things might have been better for me had an FT'er (or an experienced traveller) could have helped out.

BiziBB

I am happy to help with this, too.

My story is actually that of my wife; she runs a tourism/business studies department, loves going places, but can get very run down before some 9-22hr flights and sometimes gets so ill that she requires medical assistance, hospitalisation or both.

My preference would be that such a thread, if it is acceptable to the moderators of the forum, might best belong in CommunityBuzz. This is a people and travel-oriented place, where people go to arrange to catch up or help out, so it's already frequented by people who host or are prepared to visit FTers. It is also where we get news on the health and wellbeing of FTers, so an emergencty contact/help-a-troubled-FTer thread would be relevant there (IMHO).

I've made a few index threads, like the Duty Free Deals Index (DiningBuzz sticky) and the MidEast/Africa Trip Reports Index (ME/A FFP sticky), so am happy to help with such a thread, if required.

For Sydney, I am located 9-5 near Wynyard Station, if this helps for a Sydney contact and I can advise of nearby medical centres and there is a pharmacy next to where I work.

Hope this helps and thanks for raising this good idea. Hopefully you have your condition under control enough to be able to travel again.

I imagine there will be a good response from FTers grounded in Aussie and Kiwi locations; it's just getting 'grounded' FTers in the rest of the world to join in.

Cheers,
BiziBB (e-mail or PM should you want to discuss further - or whoever takes this up)

AKLDUBFlyer

Put me down for AKL if this thing gets started....

mrpickles

Suggest that travelers do a little research for the local number of their embassy or consulate general office in the country they are traveling to. Program the number to your mobile or cell phone.

When involved in a travel emergency or travel legal problem they should be notified and usually your embassy will notify your family and make other arrangements for you. I know that if you ar in the USA and are involved in a police matter they are required to offer you contact with your embassy for legal assistance.

This may not help in the matter of picking up a prescription, but they might be able to help find a 24 hour pharmacy that delivers.

AKLDUBFlyer

mrpickles...perhaps I was in a unique position in that I AM a US citizen with residence in NZ having been gone from the US for over 15 years....so embassy contacts would have meant little....

Further, I would trust a fellow FT'er more than a Government bureaucrat any day.. That is unless I was on Coupon Connection....

You want to go where?

I agree that forum is not the right answer here. I like the idea of a thread in community buzz for the basic info, but would also suggest that any individual faced with an emergency should consider posting a well-titled thread in the most popular forum that is relevant, i.e., if you are in New York/New Jersey, post in the New York forum, London, the UK forum, etc.

Depending on the nature of the emergency, this might be a situation where a pointer thread cross-posted in a relevant airline posting be allowed as an exception.

superspudbucket

THis sounds like a good idea. +1