Desert survivor’s next struggle
Claire Nelson paid her travel insurance bill but after a horror accident in a United States desert the insurance companies are refusing to play ball.
Nelson, 35, who grew up in the Hutt Valley suburb of Eastbourne, was found with a shattered pelvis in Joshua Tree National Park by US park rangers four days after she fell and broke her pelvis in May.
During those days, in agony and fearful of rattlesnakes, she was forced to drink her own urine to survive until finally she was spotted by a rescue helicopter.
She had survived but little did she know a new battle was about to begin – with insurers.
She made the visit to the US while travelling around Canada on a two-year visa, and had been told the US travel insurance company could have her moved back to Canada any time it wanted, so her Canadian insurance could take over the costs.
Now back in Canada, where her O¯ taki-based mother has flown to take care of her, it appears the battle continues.
On Tuesday, Canadian time, she tweeted: ‘‘Don’t even know which is wearing me down more at the moment: the physical pain of a shattered pelvis and nervedamaged foot.
‘‘ . . . or trying to get EITHER of the insurance companies I bought policies from to cover any medical costs.
‘‘Oh who am I kidding. It’s the latter for sure.’’
She later added: ‘‘I’m just too tired. It’s breaking me. All of it.’’
She shared a link to a Gofundme.com page, which has already raised almost $33,000 of a $50,000 goal to help her medical bills. She said she had taken travel insurance out for the US trip but, ‘‘long after the fact’’ the insurance company said it wouldn’t pay because she didn’t have the Canadian Government’s Ontario Health Insurance Plan.
It was a plan, she had been told, she was ineligible for because she hadn’t worked fulltime for the past six months.
‘‘I took out two years of health insurance in Canada,’’ Nelson said.
‘‘But they don’t want to pay for my care here as they think the other insurance company is responsible.’’