Interview Transcript: Fast Cover Travel Insurance Experience
Fast Cover: Hi Deirdre. Thank you for jumping on this call with us. To get things started, could you just tell me a little bit about yourself. Like your hobbies, whether you're working, obviously. You said you're still working.
Deirdre: Yes, yes. I am still working at what I've done for decades now, which is some copy editing, mainly on magazines and newspapers. I’ve spent most of my life in Sydney, except for a stint in South Australia for seven years. I don't have any children. I have a dog and we live now in the Hunter Valley, but I work remotely since COVID. When I was working in the Blue Mountains and they sent us all home, they figured out it was possible to work remotely. So, suits me fine and we have a great life out there while I'm still working.
Fast Cover: I’ve heard your dog has been a good companion during your recovery?
Deirdre: Oh, my goodness, he has not left my side. He had five weeks while I was away with dog sitters for two weeks, and then my sister brought him home to the mountains and he was here. It's the longest we've been apart! I don't know what he made of it, but I can send you a video of the homecoming. It was unbelievable, and he's great. He's 11 and he's a bearded collie and he's very, very affectionate.
Fast Cover: Excellent. So, if you want to tell us a bit about your trip, what your plan was, why you were going on your trip and where you were going to?
Deirdre: Yes. Um, well, I hadn't travelled since December 2018/19. I went to India and throughout COVID, obviously not. And then for this trip, my best friend has the use of this house in Northern Italy, in Tuscany through a family connection. And she has gone there once a year, every year for 10 years and has nagged me for the whole of that time to come and join her when she's there for a couple of months. And I've always, you know, can I get away from work and all this kind of thing. I was booked just before COVID hit and that, knot that on the head. And once that finished, I said “I'm definitely doing it”.
So, we booked, and it was going to be the first time I saw this house, the first time I saw that beautiful part of the world. It's in a mediaeval village in the Apennines, in between Tuscany and Emilio Romano, and it's the highest building, the highest village in that area. There's a few of them dotted around and the Senate and it is beautiful. From there we were going to do day trips to a place called Manna DeLuca, where there are hundreds of years old Hot Springs, and we're going to try that out. Go to Florence. I want to go to the feet, see the gallery, which I've never seen, and lots of other day trips and eating and all that sort of stuff.
Anyway, I was only going for two weeks because that's all I could get away from work, so I'm going to pack a lot of in. And then my other dear friend was coming over from Australia and joining us at this on the second week, and he and I were going to go to Rome at the end of that week and run around Rome for three days before he went on elsewhere and I came home. This was all planned and we did the first week, had a wonderful time with my friend, went to restaurants, did loads of walking which I was pleased later on. I think it might have stood me in good stead for the recovery, for the injury.
We went right down to the bottom of the valley. We went up to the statue of Dante in the village we went to. We did lots of things and then we had a big party in the Piazza of the little village on the Sunday. You know, the ambulance volunteers take disabled people on chairs trekking through the forests, and that's an annual thing. Anyway, we had a great time at that gathering and went back and had a normal Sunday night. We were exhausted.
I got up at 5:00 AM pre-dawn to go downstairs to the bathroom and I thought, I'll just make a cup of tea when I come back. And there are stairs in this three-storey really old stone house and they're against the wall. They don't have a railing. And we had always been careful to stick to the wall, not to have any mishaps. But in my days and in the darkness, I forgot that the stairs curve around at the bottom. And I think I just put my leg out into thin air and on the last two or three steps and over, I went on a hard stone floor in the kitchen. And I don't remember the pain happening instantly, but I remember sitting up thinking “What have I done?”, you know, “This has got to be bad!”. So I look down at my foot and saw it was all distorted at the ankle. My first thought was that its now dislocated and I don't want anyone coming like they do on a football field and putting it back in. That's all I could think of. I couldn't move. I couldn't even slide on my bottom to get to a chair or anything.
So, I called out to my friend upstairs, and she came downstairs all bleary eyed and we didn't know what to do. But anyway, she got on the phone. Nearest town is least an hour away, and that's where the ambulance was. The same ones who'd been there the day before for the festival. She finally got hold of someone who could speak a bit of English, because no one speaks much English there at all. And they said that they would come. So, we sat and waited,, and she gave me a cup of tea. I know it's quite shaky and I think it was a bit of shock and ate some breakfast. In my head I said, “You’re supposed to eat sugar or something” and I probably made that up. Anyway, she put a blanket around me and three people arrived with the ambulance. Now the village is not accessible by car. It's a bunch of really winding, narrow, cobbled streets up to her house, which is the last house at the top. And so, they couldn't drive up to the house. They can drive to a car park before the village and then walk about a 15-minute walk. So, three people arrived, and they all sat around my friend wondering what to do.
I think only one of them could speak much English. They produced a folding chair from somewhere, and I was carried down from the house through the village on this sort of like a sedan chair and a couple of men carrying it and got to a point where really small skinny car of some kind owned by one of the villagers was parked and they put me in that. Then they took me up to the car park with ambulances waiting and the whole village was out watching and was really early in the morning and I was in a lot of pain, but they were wonderful, and they transferred me to the ambulance making be comfortable. And then we set off to Luca Hospital, the main town in the area and that was about two-hour drive away. So, I was just in their hands, and they got me to the ED at Luca Hospital.
They obviously took an X ray. There was a fair bit of waiting cause, you know it was a Monday morning usual emergency department stuff. But they were very good and very efficient and again, nobody speaking English, so I couldn't really ask many questions. But the upshot was they showed me a screen with an X ray on it and said “It's broken. You must have surgery”. So they admitted me and before they took me to the ward, I had to have a pinpoint through my heels and the circular thing put on for traction and await on the end of it because it was the kind of brake that wasn't aligned and they had to do that before they could actually get in there and do surgery. Do you want me to tell you the upshot of what happened next?
Fast Cover: Yes, please. Did you or the hospital or your friend contact Fast Cover?
Deirdre: Not at that point. You know, I hadn't hit my head or anything, but she kept asking about and I think I was incredibly lucky not to have injured any other part like ribs or any of that stuff. But I was a little bit dazed wondering what was going to happen. I didn't think of the insurance first. I've never had it. I mean, sorry I have had it, but I've never used it and I've never sort of known how it works. So I actually didn't think about it. And I don't think it was till the afternoon that I thought I should ring Fast Cover. I don't know. I first thing I thought of was the Embassy. And then I thought, “Oh yeah, that's right, travel insurance! I should ring them and let them know because I don't know what was involved”. So, I did.
From then on it was the most fantastic thing because I was so reassured. It was fantastic. I was just so relieved at that point and that was the start of four whole weeks in hospital and I was in contact with Fast Cover almost daily by email and a few times by phone and it was brilliant. It was just so supportive and such a relief because there was no trouble, no queries about anything and I'm just so grateful.
Fast Cover: That's great to hear. Certainly Faye does a great job and the team do help a lot. Unfortunately, accidents like these do happen quite a bit. But that's what they're there for, to help you in those situations.
Deirdre: Yeah. And you do hear along the way various horror stories about resistance to covering certain things. I just didn't know what to expect. But for my first experience of such thing, it was great. It was so great that every time I tell people the course of my experience and stay there and how I got home and everything, they all want to know the name of my insurer? Even at the dog park, another couple asked me. So yes, I'm happy to tell them.
Fast Cover: That’s great to hear. Glad to have you as an advocate. Also, what's the hospital food like in Italy?
Deirdre: Oh, everyone asked me that back in Australia. I don't get sick very often, but I never lose my appetite. I would have eaten whatever they gave me and what they gave me was a pleasant surprise. It was basic, but it was Italian basic. Every day you got someone coming and asking you what you wanted. There was always a menu choice of two things in each meal. I can't complain about that. I think it was fresh and reasonably nutritious.
Fast Cover: Yeah, there's always that expectation that hospital food's not going to be the best, but you probably think that Italy or France or somewhere in Europe, if they're probably gonna do it best.
Deirdre: Yeah. I mean, it wasn't gourmet, but you know, it wasn't horrible. I feel fortunate. And I had my friends coming in and bringing little treats occasionally, but being flat on my back for so long, I was trying not to eat too many pastries or any of that sort of thing. I thought I complained about the hospital. They were excellent. Their service, the nursing, the medical care. I didn't know what to expect. But I noticed how clean they kept the hospital. Every day, twice a day, the cleaners come through. Every single day changing your bed. So I felt very lucky.
Fast Cover: After you've had your ankle operation and you were in recovery mode in the hospital, can you just tell me about you getting from the hospital to the airport and coming up?
Deirdre: I had to wait two weeks till the swelling came down and they got me off traction into surgery because it was too swollen and there were some also some fracture blisters that were dodgy for infection, so they didn't operate for two weeks. Then I was in two weeks longer for recovering from the surgery in a cast, and of course from soon as I've got out of surgery, I wondered how long this will take and one of the hardest things was not being able to communicate because of the language difference. So, one of the things I was relying on Fast Cover to do was to be able to communicate with the doctors. And that's why I was also grateful for the cross communication from Fay or whoever mailed the nurse from home. And there was a lot of talk, “oh no, no, you can't fly, you can't fly”. They said there. I think they were worried about cross clot clotting risk on a flight. And they said, no, you can only be discharged for hotel. And then I thought, oh, there were some implications. Spending six weeks in a hotel and that was all. Then in the last week, finally the beginning of the last week seemed to get some suggestion that I could fly. I feel that right up to the very end sitting doctors there were saying I couldn't fly but that Fast Cover got medical advice at this end and somehow it was all sorted.
And what absolutely lifted my spirits was when Mel first said you would fly me home business class with a nurse escorting. And I thought that was fantastic because I couldn't walk. Didn't know how I'd get to the toilet. Didn't know how I'd be up to stretch my leg out in economy. Just, you know all these questions. So that sounded ideal, and things were underway to find the nurse. And I didn't know what would happen to my return flight. And I gather all of that handled anyway on the big day, which was the Sunday, the nurse turned up with the ambulance guys and they were taking me to Bologna airport, which was closer than Rome, to be put on an Emirates flight to Dubai and then home to Sydney. And it was all arranged. It was just beautiful because it was so easy for me. I didn't have to do anything, not even paperwork or anything.
The nurse was fantastic, very experienced, deeply knowledgeable and inspired a lot of confidence. We had great chats on the way home and they got to the airport. She just handled everything, and it went very smoothly until they put me on what looked like a cargo lift or something up to the door of the plane. And then the attendants were helping me to transfer to this thing they call an aisle chair, which is really and this skinny little chair that will fit along and take you to the toilet without any dramas. And it was fantastic and the whole slide was just a dream. The flight attendants were just fantastic. People at the airport were fantastic and I had my nurse there the whole time, so I didn't worry about anything. And it was incredibly comfortable.
And it was interesting that there were two women on board who two sisters who had gone on a tour to Florence and one had fallen over and broken her femur. And we chatted to them at every stop, including in the in the Emirates lounge in Dubai. And they had a different experience, and they had a different insurer. I don't even remember the name, but there were gaps in it the whole way. Obviously, the sister was helping support the other one, but they didn't have an aisle tear arranged. They didn't, you know, there were things that they didn't have arranged that we did. So again felt very fortunate and then the nurse came with me, obviously landing at Sydney and my sister was waiting there with a wheelchair that she had bothered, borrowed and I was handed over.
I just, I couldn't have thought anything about it. It was just, it was easy. And you know when you don't know what's gonna happen next? Through an experience like that, I didn't have to worry at all.
Fast Cover: Yeah, certainly that’s what we like to hear, Deirdre. We make the process as easy as it can be. Like you said earlier, we appreciate you mentioning that the emergency assistance team was amazing, and that you were so thankful.
Deirdre: Oh absolutely! Fast Cover were amazing during the whole ordeal after my injury in Italy and I couldn't have wished for better support, especially their constant communication with me while I was overseas.
Fast Cover: And did you do you know the value of your cover?
Deirdre: No, I don't have that. Thank you.
Fast Cover: To be precise, it was $35,113
Deirdre: Oh my God! Really?
Fast Cover: Yeah.
Deirdre: Oh God. Because people were quoting me these terrible figures. I don't know where they got them from and I thought “I didn't even want to think about it, but I wonder what it did cost”.
Fast Cover: So, most of the medical was covered because we've got the reciprocal healthcare in Italy. But yeah, the other arrangements were around AUD $35.000.
Deirdre: Wow, if it wasn’t obvious, it was absolutely worth the money. I would recommend everyone to get travel insurance and to look carefully at the options. Make sure you get everything covered that you think you could possibly need and spend the money on it. It's so worth it. And I'd go with Fast Cover. Now, I just picked Fast Cover off the Internet! I was booking my flight, and I thought there's nothing wrong with me and I'm healthy and all of that, but I knew you never know what can happen overseas. Also, I didn't know which one to book and thought “just go for the cheapest”. But then something made me not, and I'm really glad I did. And the money is so worth it. You just have to do it, I think. And I have absolutely no regrets.
Fast Cover: Perfect, thank you so much for sharing Deirdre. Is there anything else you wanted to say or ask?
Deirdre: Look, it's been an incredible experience. Been incredible learning experience. And I don't know what it would have been like without travel insurance or with a difficult travel insurer. I dread to think about it, but the fact that I did have this kind of coverage and you know backing when I most needed it. I think it was a big part of me being able to just go with the pain that there was and the kind of length of stay I had and really spend the time thinking a lot about my life and what it would be like when I got back. And you know, I would have been so distracted from that if I had had to worry about money or other things. So yeah, I feel extremely fortunate and grateful for the experience, believe it or not.
