Medical Emergency

No one wants to think about having a medical emergency while traveling. But if you're traveling internationally, especially with a family member who may need assistance, a little preparation can make a stressful situation much easier to manage.

Before leaving for Mallorca, I had purchased international travel insurance through Allyz. I kept the insurance app on my phone with my plan information, and I also carried a printed copy of my proof of insurance. I also kept my passport with me. I had read that Spain required tourists to always carry them so everyone in my family had their passports with them rather than leaving them in the hotel safe. 

Normally, I might have been inclined to leave the originals in the hotel safe and carry copies, but in our case, the ambulance and hospital specifically asked for my mother's passport. The hospital also later asked for mine when I was paying the bill, so it was a good thing we had that on us. 

On our last night in Mallorca, my mother fell at a restaurant in Port de Sóller and hit her head. We had taken the train from Palma to Sóller and then the tram to Port de Sóller for a late lunch at a wonderful restaurant overlooking the port. Before making the trip back to Palma, we decided to use the bathroom because it was a long trip back to the resort. 

Unfortunately, the bathroom was not accessible. The restaurant is in an old house and getting there required climbing a flight of stairs. My daughter and I each took one of my mother's arms to help her up the stairs. She doesn't necessarily need assistance on stairs, but she can sometimes become unsteady, so we thought having someone on either side of her would be safer. We were almost to the bathroom when her sandal caught on a groove in the floorboard. She fell forward and face-planted on the floor, splitting her forehead open just above her eyebrow.

There was blood everywhere, so it took us a few minutes for us to figure out what was happening. Because my daughter and I had been holding her as she fell, all three of us were covered in blood and looked like we had stepped into a horror movie! My mother immediately insisted she was fine, but it was obvious that her forehead would need stitches. We also didn't realize until later that she had badly injured her right leg.

The restaurant staff immediately sprang into action. One of the men working there grabbed a medical kit, comforted my mother, and carefully cleaned and dressed her wounds. The woman who had been serving us and other staff members quickly joined in to help. They called an ambulance and helped carry my mother downstairs. They called for an ambulance. 

While we waited for it the restaurant staff stayed with us and continued checking on my mother. The woman who had been serving us kept coming back between waiting on her other tables to make sure we were okay. The man who had treated my mother's wounds stayed with us throughout the ordeal and the local police also remained nearby.

When the ambulance arrived, the emergency responders assessed her and determined that since she hit her head, she should be evaluated at a hospital in Palma, about an hour away. There was only a local urgent care in the vicinity without the necessary imaging capabilities. We were told that an ambulance from the Palma hospital would need to come and transport her, so they stayed with her until the ambulance from Palma arrived. 

When it did, we learned that only one other person could ride with my mother. I went with her while my husband and daughter had to return to the resort to pack. Because we were supposed to fly home in less than 12 hours, we thought it made sense for them to return to the resort, pack everyone's belongings, and wait for us.

Because we didn't have cell service, we couldn't call a taxi ourselves. My mother had a phone with cell service, but she had never used ride-sharing apps, so she didn't have any on her phone. I was also running between talking with the ambulance crews, restaurant staff, police, my mother, and the rest of my family, I simply didn't have the bandwidth at that moment to research local taxi companies.

Once again, the restaurant staff came to our rescue. They called a taxi for my husband and daughter so they could return to the resort, which was more than an hour away.

Everyone seemed to understand how frightened and stressed we were, not only because of what had happened to my mother, but because we were supposed to fly home early the next morning. They went out of their way to reassure us, keep our spirits up, and make an incredibly frightening situation a little easier.

I remain extremely grateful to the entire staff at Só Caprichos for the kindness and care they showed my mother and our family that evening. The initial care they provided was so thorough that my mother arrived at the hospital still wearing the bandages they had carefully applied. I also want to thank the Port de Soller ambulance crew and police for their kindness and support. 

What happened next at the hospital is where I learned some important lessons about traveling with medical emergencies in mind.

Once we arrived at the hospital and my mother was being evaluated, I was asked for her insurance information.

This is where things became more complicated!

I had my proof of insurance with me, but the hospital needed more than that. They wanted a guarantee of payment from the insurance company - a document confirming that the insurer would cover the hospital's charges. I learned a proof of insurance document was not sufficient and not a guarantee of payment – this document is specifically titled as such. 

I needed to contact the insurance company, but I didn't have a working phone, and the hospital did not have Wi-Fi and there was no other public network accessible from the building. 

The lack of cell service had already been inconvenient during the trip, but the medical emergency showed me just how important it could become. I had considered getting international cell service before the trip but decided against it because my mother told me she would have it. I figured that if we had an emergency, at least one of us would have a working phone.

That turned out not to be enough.

When my mother was taken away to be examined, I had her purse with me but didn't know the passcode to unlock her phone. So even though her phone had cell service, I couldn't use it. I couldn't call the insurance company nor my husband to give him an update. I couldn't access any information I needed online or any apps. The hospital receptionist was kind enough to lend me her cell phone to contact the insurance company.

When I spoke with the insurance agent, she explained that they could provide the document, but it could take several days and everything was closed for the holiday weekend in the US and Spain, which made getting the necessary paperwork even more difficult. She then asked how long my mother was expected to remain in the hospital. At that point, we thought she would probably be there for only a few hours. However, the doctors ordered an MRI, so I was not sure how long she would ultimately need to stay.

The agent explained that if my mother were going to remain in the hospital for several days, they could work through the process and provide the necessary information for payment. But if she was only going to be there for a few hours, she recommended I pay the hospital fees myself and then submit the expenses for reimbursement rather than wait several days for the guarantee-of-payment process. 

Meanwhile, my husband and daughter were waiting at the resort with no idea what was happening with my mother. We couldn't reliably communicate with each other, which was incredibly stressful. We also had to figure out what to do about our travel plans in case my mother needed to stay in the hospital or even if she was released, if the doctor would not let her fly. We were supposed to fly home in less than 12 hours, and everything for our trip, including our airline reservations, was booked in my name. We had to decide whether to change our flights, extend our hotel stay, or make other arrangements. 

Without my phone, I didn't have easy access to the information or apps I normally would have used to manage our trip. I couldn't simply open the United app to change our reservation, and I couldn't easily call United. I also needed to communicate with the resort about whether we would need another night.

The hospital ultimately released my mother a few hours later. Thankfully, her MRI was clear. She needed stitches on her forehead and her leg had to be bandaged because the fall had ripped off the skin on the front of her leg beween her knee and ankle even though she had been wearing pants. My mother insisted again she was fine and wanted to go home so we decided to keep our travel arrangements. 

After we knew that my mother was going to be released, I went back to reception to pay the bill.  It turns out that their payment system only takes cards with pins. They do not take any other form of payment. None of my credit cards had a PIN already established, I had never needed one before. The hospital's system would not allow the staff to manually enter my card number. It had to be processed using a pin. 

Because I couldn't reliably use my phone, I couldn't access my banking apps or other financial services to access or call to see if I could set a pin up for my credit cards. The only card in my wallet that had a pin was my debit card. That meant I had to pay the entire medical bill directly from my checking account. Thankfully, I had just been paid and had enough money available to cover it. I honestly don't know what I would have done if I hadn't!

After my mother was released and I had paid, we had another transportation problem. I couldn't call a taxi or use a ride-hailing app to arrange transportation back to the resort. Fortunately, the hospital called a cab for me. 

The driver took my mother and I back to the resort and waited while I got my mother settled in her room. She then took me back into Palma so I could retrieve the rental car we had left in a garage near the train station. I gave her a very large tip for being so accommodating. 

By the time everything was resolved, I had a very different perspective on what it means to be "connected" while traveling! I had assumed that widespread Wi-Fi would be enough. I had assumed that my mother having cell service meant one of us would have a working phone. I had assumed that if I really needed something, I would be able to figure it out or acquire something while I was traveling because I was in an urban area. None of those assumptions held up during an emergency. 

(See eSIM & Cell Phone Coverage for more on what I would do differently next time.)