Travel insurance with minor head injury?

tradhead

Hi all,

I have no experience at all with travel insurance so I'm hoping somebody here will be able to help me. My sister is supposed to be going on a skiing trip on Thursday, but was in A&E on Friday with concussion after a self-defence class(!)

She's been looking forward to this trip for months as she's going over to her boyfriend who is a skiing instructor there, and whom she hasn't seen since Christmas. Now the fear of God has been put in her by a family member who used to work in insurance, that has told her that she can't go on the trip, as she would not be covered under any travel insurance if, God forbid, anything were to happen to her.

She's absolutely distraught as she's missing him loads and the thought of this trip has been the only thing keeping her going, so I'm trying to think of a solution. She actually did ask the doctor in A&E if she could still go on the skiing trip, and he said it should be fine. They did a brain scan and a load of tests, and everything was clear.

1) I'm presuming there is some truth in what she has been told, re not being covered for any incident as she would be on record as attending the hospital on Friday- can anyone confirm this?

2) If she were to go and not ski (which I'm thinking could be a solution), would she still be able to get travel insurance for the duration of the trip?

Any help or suggestions at all would be much appreciated- I hate seeing her so upset and am really hoping that she'll somehow still be able to go.

Atlantic Dawn

If she is not awaiting medical test results I don't see any issue, however if she was told not to engage in skiing or similar activities for some time as a result of the injury then her travel insurance would be invalidated.

tradhead

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

If she is not awaiting medical test results I don't see any issue, however if she was told not to engage in skiing or similar activities for some time as a result of the injury then her travel insurance would be invalidated.

Thank you! She got a cert which only covered her for Friday but her boss has insisted she takes tomorrow too so she's going to see will they extend the cert. Is there such thing as a letter to say she is fit to fly that she could get from the doctor? Or would that be going overboard?

I really appreciate this!

Toots

If she has a chat to her GP I can't imagine there'd be a problem with them giving her a letter saying she's fit to fly. The only thing is she'd want to tell the GP that she's going skiing and make sure the GP says it's ok. I had a concussion last year and the doc in the hospital said to me to be careful for the coming weeks, because if you've had a concussion and bang your head again soon afterwards you've a greater chance of getting another one. It might just be a simple case of making sure to wear a ski helmet, or else she may have to just not ski but the GP can tell her for sure.

tradhead

Lads, ye've cheered her up no end, thank you so much.

Boards is just the best!

phormium

I'm assuming she already has taken out the insurance when the trip was booked?

The only way to be sure of what she is covered for and what the conditions are is read the policy doc or ring the company and ask, anything else is just guesswork.