ANDERSONSTOWN Road solicitor Helen Burns has urged holidaymakers to ensure that their holiday insurance is what it claims to be after finding herself caught up in a holiday horror when her mother Ann suffered heart failure on a family break in Mexico.
Helen and her mother flew to Cancun on July 26 and that same evening her mother was rushed to hospital with severe pains in her chest. Whilst at the hospital she was admitted to intensive care where a number of underlying conditions were diagnosed.
Her confidence that her holiday insurance would ease the burden at such a difficult time was soon shattered, however.
Speaking to the Andersonstown News from Cancun, Helen said: “I had taken mum to see a consultant privately before we travelled as she had been waiting so long on an appointment. He said that she was ok to travel and she was so looking forward to the trip and I had taken out extra travel insurance with the Post Office for her because of her health.
“When she took ill, I had to fight with the travel insurance company to cover the bill for her to be admitted to ICU and they found out that not only was she going into heart failure but she had diabetes which hadn’t been diagnosed at home. They told me that she had been medically neglected at home and she had to have surgery over here to have stents put into her heart.”
Helen and Ann were originally due to fly home to Belfast on July 6, but that was the day she was released from hospital and she was unable to travel. Helen told us that the hotel they were staying in was fully booked and so the insurance company moved them to the new hotel where they are at present and which she compared to Butlins.
“I told them that mum needed somewhere quiet because of her condition but we have been put into a disabled room right beside the stage where there is music blasting constantly," she said.
“I was told that the insurance could only extend our stay by three days due to their policy. On Saturday they told me that they would extend it to the 12th of July and we would fly home on the 14th."
But even that seemingly simple concession quickly proved illusory.
“We went down to the pool and were enjoying the weather. When we had a bit of lunch and returned to the room we had been locked out. I went to reception and they told us that the insurance company hadn’t been in contact to extend the stay.
“The staff very graciously let us into the room and when I contacted the insurance company they said there was nothing they could do because their travel insurance didn’t have the right number for the hotel and they asked if I could sort it.”
Helen also told us that she was having difficulty sourcing the new medication that the hospital in Cancun had proscribed to her mother and had asked for assistance from her insurance company.
After being contacted by this paper on Sunday, Post Office Insurance, which is underwritten by the Collinson Group, agreed to extend their stay.
In a statement, a Post Office spokesperson said: “We’re sorry to hear that Ms Burns' mother was taken ill while on holiday.
“We have assisted Ms Burns whilst she has been abroad and the situation regarding access to the hotel room was resolved on Sunday 11 July in the evening.
“The Claims and Assistance teams are in contact with Ms Burns regarding her claim and what the next steps concerning the claim are.”
