Job Discussion Forums

[Galileo]

"A daughter saved her father’s life by wrapping his gangrene-infected foot in a freezer bag to bring him home from Vietnam."
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/daughter-saves-dads-life-wrapping-6709934

I just came across this. I remember him from about 8-9 years ago when he was the director at a certain school in Saigon. The conditions at the Vietnamese hospital where he was staying sound truly horrible. I'm sorry to hear that things turned out the way they did.

[SeldomSeen]

While we feel for the victim and are incredibly relieved that the family managed to fly him home despite his condition there are some lessons here for all of us.

First of all, get insurance. But what does that cover you for? Has anyone had any good or bad experiences with insurers. If so, please share it.

More importantly, what's the process if you fall desperately ill one day, say, in the middle of the road (or another vehicle hits you)? You would hope that somehow you would be taken to hospital but how would they treat you? Do they have a process for trying to establish the identity of this unknown patient, or do they simply hope that a friend, relative or employer will simply happen to contact the right hospital eventually, (and have the language abilities to do this), so that the person's identity will be established? While (thankfully) I don't have any first hand knowledge of this and understand that emergency treatment in Vietnamese hospitals is adequate my understanding is that after-care and comfort of the patients is not. How does a hospital establish that a (foreign or local) patient has medical insurance or not that qualifies them to be transferred to an "international" hospital where we would hope that after-care facilities are better and, even if they had this information, would the staff have the initiative to begin this process?

You can see where I am coming from. Insurance may help, but without a good friend to look out for you I'm not sure the process for getting you the best help will even start.

Perhaps the least we should do is ensure that we have health insurance and are carrying the card at all times (perhaps a little difficult when swimming, running or in a gym). Is it more important to have a friend or someone to rely on who (hopefully) will figure out that you are sick, somehow find out which hospital you are at, and take care of the insurance details as well as contacting family as well? This is a tall order to ask anyone.

If anyone has any personal experience or advice to offer here I am sure we would all welcome it.

[Mattingly]

The individual did not take care of himself.

This is why this whole scenario happened.

He's an adult. He let things slide.

[tellersquill]

My new job covers accidents and illness - except traffic accidents as I don't have a license. But I've also been told I need a bike to get to the two different schools.

My boss basically told me that all the tefl workers take the chance every day.

Scary stuff!

[rogerwilco]

[1st Sgt Welsh]

[tellersquill]

[rogerwilco]

[AV15]

Health insurance is one of the biggest scams going. You're covered for everything that's not likely to happen (i.e. getting attacked by a shark, or hit by lightning), but they don't cover for anything that makes you likely to have to make a claim at some point (i.e. heart attacks, car accidents, cancer, strokes). They'll try anything to weasle out of paying. I.e. lets say you get hit by a motorbike while you're walking down the road. However, you happen to have had a few alcoholic drinks prior to this. You won't be covered, despite it being totally irrelevant to the accident. If you catch one of those motorbike taxis and it has an accident, you're unlikely to be covered. Why not? Because if Vietnam is anything like Thailand, you won't be wearing a helmet since the motorbike guys don't even carry spare helmets (and save me the nonsense about how you're going to cart around a helmet all day just in case you need to get a moto taxi, literally no one does this).

And anything that does actually provide proper coverage of everything likely to happen, with no loopholes that allow the company to wriggle out of paying will cost a fortune. Don't fall for the scam.

[rogerwilco]

[AV15]

[RustyShackleford]

I dunno about Thailand, but while certainly I'm sure there a few xe oms in Vietnam who juiced up, they ALWAYS carry a spare helmet because the cops LOVE to collect their coffee money. Never seen one who doesn't even in the days before Grab bike and all that jazz.

For what it's worth, I was in a motorbike accident not too long ago and my workplace insurance fully covered me, no problem. Alcohol would have certainly been an issue, however, yes.

[1st Sgt Welsh]

Firstly, Rusty is correct about the spare helmets and, on the rare occasions when I have come across a xe om that didn't have one then I just refused to ride with them. It was amazing how quickly they found a helmet from somebody when there was a few dong at stake. Alternatively, you can just carry your own.

Secondly, advising that people live in a developing country without health or travel insurance is, in my view, very poor counsel. I'm sorry, but, that's just the way I see it. I had to deal with insurance companies all the time in my previous career and my experience with them has always been, without exception, if you had a legitimate claim, then they paid up. True, that was back in the West and that's why I'm still using a Western insurance provider and, sure, there are caveats to what they will cover. For example, if you break your leg in an traffic accident when you were driving around drunk and/or without a driving license then, of course, that's going to be on you. Shop around when looking for a policy, read about what's covered and get something fairly comprehensive that you are happy with. There will be some things that you will not be covered for, but, if it's a decent policy, then there will be plenty of circumstances in which you will be.

Anyway, we are all adults here and people can work it out for themselves. If somebody decides that they don't want to get insurance then that's fine. No skin off my nose. However, like I said before, I think that's a crazy decision and I, for one, will have very little sympathy if you get yourself into strife.

[AV15]

Well it's very different than Thailand then. In Thailand, I've never seen a motorbike taxi have a spare helmet for a passenger. Literally everyone gets on the back of those mototaxis without a helmet, and if that motobike crashes, highly unlikely you'll be covered.

I'd say the majority of expat 'problems' that they'll need insurance for are related to traffic incidents or stuff that happens after the consumption of alcohol. If you get cancer or a long term condition, you can always fly back home for treatment (unless you come from the USA with its backwards healthcare system). It's important for people to know that often these likely problems are not covered. I.e. let's say you go out for a few drinks, then get jumped by a bunch of locals for your valuables while you're walking home. They give you a beating for good measure. Go to the hospital, and the insurance won't pay out as you've previously been drinking. It's a complete joke the number of exclusions in most policies - and those that truly do cover everything are prohibitively expensive if you're earning anything like a normal salary (i.e. let's say $1,500-$2,000 a month in most Asian countries).

If you're young (20s-30s) you can probably get covered against stuff like a heart attack or a stroke, and for a reasonable price. That's because almost no one has to claim on these grounds at that age! Once you're in your 50s or 60s, you won't be getting coverage for these common problems, and if you do you'll pay through the nose for it. There's still the problems with alcohol though and traffic - which you don't get covered for unless you meet a set of circumstances that are unlikely to be met in a lot of countries (though apparently not in Vietnam, at least with regard to motorbike taxis).

[flyingmonkey]

http://m.thanhniennews.com/health/vietnam-hospital-rejects-british-patient-mistreatment-claim-53473.html

It sounds like this individual was diabetic which actually increases the risk of gangrene due to poor circulation.