Vacation Injuries - Tips and Tricks
 

In light of the recent story of the Canadian injured while skydiving in the U.S.A

Canadian injured while skydiving in U.S. headed home | CTV News

Have you ever injured yourself unexpectedly while on Holidays?
It is a frightening experience, but do share what you've learned to help others.

How did you get to your hospital?
How bad was your injury?
How was dealing with your insurance policy?
What have you learned?
What would you do differently next time?

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I was one a 5 day tour in Beijing with my girlfriend. We took a all Mandarin speaking tour. I do not speak the language, I only speak English. So, you can imagine how it went.

The day before flying to Beijing I went to the Guangzhou Zoo in the middle of a jungle and got some sort of insane insect bites on my legs while wearing shorts without any insect repellent. My ankle swole up so big that I could barely put my shoe on.

So, I ended up limping everywhere. At night our tour guide took us to one hospital. Nope, they do not accept foreigners. Next hospital, nope no foreigners. Third hospital, nope. Airport hospital gave me some sort of antibiotic pills for cheap that did absolutely nothing.

I had insurance, but it wasn't worth even covering for medicine that was less than $10.

I limped on the great wall, around Mao Zedong's tomb (the security actually let me skip the huge ass line up because of my gimped leg), I limped the forbidden city, olympic stadiums, summer palace. Everywhere.

The only thing that actually worked and subsided the swelling was this magical cream that we saw when the tour brought us to these stores to hustle us for money in between sight seeing.

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Bao Fu Ling
I don't know what's in it but somehow it stops itching and swelling of all sorts. It's magical. Really saved me from limping instantly. If you go to Asia and have a chance to pick some up it is worth it.

Next time don't wear shorts in a jungle and wear tons of bug spray. Who know what animals those insects sucked on before biting me?

is it like tiger balm?

^No it's soothing. Very minty or eucalyptus like.

Works wonders on burns and blisters too. Can't explain how it works lol

Had a friend that got hammered in Vegas, couldn't get his key to work the elevator, he decided to climb out of the window of the overhead pathway down to the pool area - well, that didn't work so well, he took a header and ended up in the trauma unit via the ambulance. My friends and I didn't find out until after noon the next day, go and bail him out of the hospital late in the afternoon, and then buy his meds.

Get back to Canada and then finally finds out his insurance wouldn't pay because he was inebriated. He managed to settle on paying $6000 total - they wanted $9k. So, moral of the story - no insurance if you're drunk.

Good to know. I'll be checking my policy to see if that clause is there also.

I think these creams just contain a lot of corticosteroids. I would be careful using too much of it. That's why it would work on burns and stuff as well.


I've been skydiving in Hawaii, but I don't think I think that's a lot safer than say, doing Tough Mudder in the states. I thought about doing an adventure race or something similar like that - but all the insurance policies won't cover any injuries that happen from "extreme sports", so it's not worth it for me. I don't want to be stuck with a $100,000 bill.

That no insurance when drunk thing is BS with most decent insurance coverages as far as I've found out

Both RBC, BCAA and the London drugs travel insurance quote that the only violation of coverage is if you give yourself alcohol poisoning, not through regular injury

Although I guess climbing out a locked window is pretty much self inflicted and most insurance companies do probably fight any alcohol insurance claim

Scariest part about skydiving, bungee, hang-gliding, parasailing, etc. is reading and signing all the waivers.

was told by the company broker if work covers you for any travel insurance don't go out and buy another one to cover you 'just in case'. the 2 insurance companies will not pay out and point the finger at the other to pay for any expenses and get really drawn out, so it's best to just have 1 policy.

I had 3rd degree burns over my legs when I was in Moab Utah when my buddy by accident lit me on fire when I had gas on my bare skin. Thankfully I went to London drugs and paid the $20 for travel insurance before which was the smartest move I have ever made. If you are not covered from work go out and get some because you don't need it until you need it!!

His insurance was through BCAA and it wasn't a locked window, just a large open window outside the Luxor.