A British holiday maker who fell over and broke his hips says he is being forced to raise $73,014 to get back home despite being insured.
Geoff Seedall, 69, was on a family holiday in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, when he tripped over in the hotel and broke the bone.
The grandad-of-three was told he needed surgery to repair the bone but it’s been recommended by doctors in Egypt that he has the operation in the UK.
Geoff’s daughter-in-law Kelly Seedall, 40, says the travel insurance company wants him to pay $53,101 for a medical flight home and $19,913 for his hospital stay.
The company will then reimburse Geoff, who was recently diagnosed with vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, but his family cannot afford to do this.
Kelly said: “The whole reason you get travel insurance, is so you aren’t in this situation where you have to pay out thousands.
“If we had the money, then we wouldn’t take out travel insurance because we don’t need it.
“But they are saying we have to upfront the cost to get it home, and they will pay us back at a later date.
“We’ve put a complaint in and it will take eight weeks for them to respond – Geoff doesn’t have eight weeks so we need to get him home.”
Kelly says they have considered getting Geoff, of Stalmine, Lancashire, a commercial flight home but are worried about this because he’s “getting confused.”
She said: “They would need to airlift him home.
“The $53,101 would be for the aircraft and for two nurses to go with him and put him on a stretcher.
“There’s been talks of him getting on a commercial flight but he’s confused and is lashing out – he’s also struggling with the language barrier.
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“To put him on an aircraft with other people, wouldn’t be the best solution so I think we need to get him home now.
“Obviously if you are waiting for people to board a plane, then it’s going to be a problem so we are hoping to get the $53,101.
“But we will do whatever it takes to get him home.”
Geoff, who has type one diabetes, is currently in Egypt with wife Eileen, 66, and grandson Ryan, 21.
Kelly says the whole family are “heartbroken” about the incident and she’s avoided telling her daughter Zara, seven, as she doesn’t want to upset her.
She said: “We are heartbroken, I’m trying to hold it together but it’s tearing us apart.
“You honestly never think it will happen to your family and you take out travel insurance thinking you are fine.
“He’s always thinking of others and I just feel so scared and sorry for him because he must be so frightened and confused.
“We just want him back, I don’t know what we are going to do if we can’t raise the money.
“I’ve told my daughter Zara only parts of it, I’ve tried not to tell her too much.
“I’m in bits, I don’t want to tell her that she’s never going to be able to see him again because he’s such an amazing grandad to her.
“He means the world to us.”
You can donate to the GoFundMe page here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/wnnhg-bring-geoff-home.
The insurance company involved has been contacted for comment.
