As earthquakes jolted Lombok and nearby Bali this week, an uninsured Australian with a terminal illness, recently discharged from a Bali hospital ward at the cost of AUD 2470 per day, serves as a tragic illustration of why nobody should ever travel without insurance.
Duncan Turner, last heard of waiting with his family for evacuation from Bali, is a special case. He is not a victim of the earthquake. Suffering from a terminal illness and not knowing how long he has left, he decided to take a gamble and travel without insurance with his partner Michelle, so his five-year-old daughter Amelie could fulfil her dream of swimming with dolphins.
A GoFundMe page here highlights Turner’s case; Perth Facebook group Perthling has taken up the cause, media has got involved, the campaign is trending, generous souls are donating and at last glance the amount raised had exceeded AUD 25,000.
Turner, a 46-year-old Perth resident, suffered a serious head injury in Australia which caused a blood clot on the brain.
After months of rehabilitation, and having been given just months to live, he wanted to take his five-year-old daughter swimming with dolphins.
He and Michelle tried to book dolphin swimming for Amelie in Australia. Turner couldn’t get insurance because of his pre-existing health conditions, while Amelie, who is small for her age, did not reach the operators’ height limit for dolphin-swim participants.
The family decided to take a risk and went to Singapore for five days without health insurance.
During the holiday, Duncan fell again and badly injured his knee.
A friend continues the story on the GoFundMe page: “It was on the way home that things really took a turn for the worse. The family were just 30 mins from their transit destination of Bali when Duncan took a severe turn and airline staff insisted he would not be fit to board their final leg flight to Perth.
“He was taken by ambulance to a Bali emergency department and admitted to hospital for life-saving blood transfusions.
“Knowing the high costs they were about to be up for – and that after their holiday their credit card was close to maxed out already, Michelle followed the airline’s advice to call for Australian Consular assistance and sadly, they have been unable to help.
“Duncan spent three days in hospital at a cost of $AU 2470 PER DAY. His time in the ED incurs an additional cost of $AU 1300 and we are waiting to hear how much the cost of those blood transfusions will be.
“Unable to continue to pay the expensive hospital bills, Duncan was discharged against the doctors’ advice, with bills exceeding ten thousand dollars. Duncan is NOT cleared to fly and is waiting out his recovery in Bali accommodation under the watchful eye of Michelle.”
That was written before this week’s earthquake slammed into neighbouring Lombok, killing over 100 people and triggering a mass exodus.
Duncan in Bali hospital with Amelie
GoFundMe again: “Of course, there is some silver lining in that at least Michelle and Amelie are covered by the credit card’s travel insurance to stay on and wait for Duncan.
“But as you can imagine, with the worry of these mounting hospital bills and Duncan’s touchy health situation, the whole thing is far from the perfect end to the perfect family holiday that Michelle & Duncan had been hoping to provide for Amelie.”
Written by Peter Needham
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