WINGATE, NC — A man’s family and friends paid $10,000 to get him home from Mexico after he nearly drowned during a vacation there.
According to a 2023 GeoBlue/Harris poll, one in four Americans who travel abroad will deal with some medical event while they’re out of the country.
Channel 2 consumer adviser Clark Howard says buying travel insurance before you go will protect you from these high medical expenses.
It’s been a rollercoaster of emotions for Cindy Hailey and her family over the last few weeks.
It all started when her nephew Taariyen went on a vacation to Mexico with his girlfriend and their family.
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That trip to paradise quickly turned into a nightmare after water got into Taariyen’s mask and he almost drowned.
He ended up in a Mexican hospital on a ventilator.
“My sister called me on FaceTime. She was just screaming and hollering. She told me my nephew Taariyen is on life support,” Cindy Hailey said. “We were just scrambling because I hear the stories of being in a different country, especially Mexico, because of different things, and we were just panicked because we wanted to get him back here.”
She said her nephew had multiple strokes and has multiple broken ribs from the CPR performed to revive him.
She said her family lived in a state of worry and did everything they could to get him back home.
She said her nephew’s girlfriend’s family stepped up and paid that bill, and the community has also rallied behind them.
“I was looking through my phone at some of the responses and the texts that people were sending us, and I sat on my couch and I cried,” she said.
A GoFundMe account for Taariyen has raised over $15,000 in the last week.
He was able to get that airlift because of the generosity.
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“So it’s brutal. And the problem is this happens over and over again to Americans traveling outside the U.S. because your health insurance often doesn’t travel with you. And so when it doesn’t with you, you’re paying as if you have no insurance at all,” Howard said.
Clark says trip insurance that covers medical events is key when traveling abroad.
“So travel agents can refer you to someone that will sell you a trip insurance policy for medical purposes, or you can go online. They’re very easy to shop for. Websites like InsureMyTrip will quote you policies,” he said.
Taariyen is now in a hospital in Miami. Hailey said she got to speak with him on FaceTime.
“He was dead, and then the scare of trying to get him to US soil, all of those things took place. We talked to him. You could tell he was so thankful to be alive,” she said.
Hailey said that while it is unclear what her nephew’s outlook is, he is now breathing on his own, and she is hopeful he will recover.
Knowing where the US embassy is important to know when traveling abroad, so that if an emergency does happen, they can help you locate appropriate medical services, inform your family and friends (with your permission), and help you transfer funds to US citizens overseas.
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