A Cautionary Tale
Janet and her husband, Paul had just arrived in Switzerland one afternoon. Janet laid down for a rest while Paul went out to find a coffee shop. Two hours later Janet woke up to find that Paul hadn’t returned. She went down and checked at the front desk but nobody had any idea where he was.
It wasn’t until the next morning, with the help of the hotel, that Janet learned that he was in a hospital.
Paul had suffered a stroke on the street shortly after leaving the hotel and was now in intensive care. The police at the scene tried to access Paul’s cell phone but it was locked. He had his passport on him so they contacted the U.S. consulate. At the consulate they reached out to the police in Pauls town, who sent a patrol car to the address in his passport but nobody was there and there were no neighbors around.
Had Paul been carrying a simple emergency ID card that included Janet’s cell number somebody would have contacted her within hours of his stroke.
For a couple of dollars and a few minutes filling out an ID card most of the anguish suffered in the story above could have been avoided – again, what’s in your wallet?
The Intentional Travelers have for years offered an inexpensive Emergency Identification Card in either hard copy form or as a downloadable document in our shop on Etsy. At this time we have given up the Etsy shop but are planning on integrating the Etsy into a download shop on The Intentional Traveler.
In addition to Emergency ID cards The Intentional Travelers will also offers free Living Wills and Advanced Medical Directives you can download, fill out and print. Look for the new shop items in the near furture…
International Medical Care
In addition to the above things got even worse. While Paul and Janet had both Medicare and supplemental health insurance their coverage didn’t extend to areas outside of the United States. Because they hadn’t purchased additional international travel insurance the medical bills from Switzerland far exceeded US$100,000. For additional information on international travel insurance click HERE.
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