My £5,000 bill for a damaged knee was covered in full
DISASTER struck for Elaine Price on a trip to the US state of Vermont during February half-term three years ago. She took a tumble and ended up tearing a knee ligament, leading to medical and travel bills of more than £5,000.
Elaine, 51, a fitness instructor from Chepstow, Monmouthshire, was skiing on a red run in the resort of Ascutney with her teenage son Charlie one afternoon. The weather had changed dramatically during the day, altering the condition of the piste.
She says: ‘The slopes got chopped up with moguls and I hit one awkwardly.
‘My skis went in one direction and I went in the other. I heard my knee go pop.’
Elaine was taken off the mountain on a ‘blood wagon’ and treated in a medical room before being sent to hospital. ‘My bones were OK but my ligaments were damaged,’ she says. Fortunately, she was near the end of her tenday trip, and had bought an annual travel policy with Aviva for £88 that included winter sports and travel to North America, with just a £50 excess. When Elaine contacted the insurer’s helpline, it paid all the medical bills, met the cost of seats in business class for the flight home, and arranged wheelchair assistance back in the UK. She says: ‘It was great as I didn’t have to organise anything or even settle a single bill myself.’