Why Travel Insurance is Important: A Tale of Two Broken Wrists

After obtaining his Canada Working Holiday Visa, Lee was excited and looking forward to spending a year traveling around and seeing the beautiful sights of the second largest country in the world. We arrived on the West Coast, in lovely Victoria, British Columbia. We found a place to rent for a short time, and began to plan our coast to coast adventure. While we were in Victoria, we bought used bikes online as a quick and cheap way of getting around the city.

We had only had the bikes for just over a week when disaster struck.

The accident.

One beautiful sunny Wednesday morning about 6 weeks ago we were riding along the street on our way to my parent’s place when all of a sudden Lee attempted to change gears and his foot slipped off the pedal. It jammed between the front wheel of the bike and the frame, stopping him cold. As he was going at a decent speed, the abrupt stop send him flying over the handlebars. He put his hands out to protect his head and, as if he was diving into a asphalt swimming pool, he landed hands-first on the road fracturing both of his wrists.

The rest of the day is a painful blur of the two of us traveling from walk in clinic to hospital to orthopedic surgeon, getting x-rays and CT scans and sitting in waiting rooms for hours. The next day, Lee was outfitted with a pair of custom made wrist splints. He must now take it easy for the next 6 weeks.

Blood and Gore in the Walk in Clinic Waiting Room

Needless to say, our cross Canada trip was postponed until further notice! Lee and I stayed in Victoria until he healed properly.

The one most important thing that we have learned from this awful experience is;

Always, always, always have travel insurance.

Sometimes you will not want to pay the extra expense, and you will think that you will be fine for a short trip because nothing will happen to you. Trust me, it is not worth the risk. We are thanking our lucky stars that Lee bought travel insurance for Canada before his trip. If not, this injury would have not only crippled his wrists, but crippled us financially!

As a Canadian citizen, I never had to pay for my medical services. I was shocked when I realized how much Lee had to shell out for each doctor’s consultation, x-ray, and splint fitting as a foreign visitor. We will have almost spent five thousand Canadian dollars on his broken wrists before this is over. Not to mention, he is unable to get a job here as he intended to.

We had to pay for the medical care out of pocket. Fortunately, after filing our insurance claim, the money will be returned to us. If we did not have travel insurance, that money would have been gone. We’d have to scramble to make it up, putting a serious dint in our future travel plans.

Better safe than sorry.

The truth is, anything can happen to you when you travel. You take that risk every time you step out your front door. After all, you can injure yourself or fall ill anywhere in the world. It’s better to spend that little bit extra just in case. You’ll also be covered if your flight is delayed, your luggage is lost, your airline goes bankrupt or you are robbed. It can also cover you if there is a natural disaster, and many other travel worst case scenarios.

There are many different travel insurance packages. Before you buy travel insurance take the time to find out which type is best for your trip. You may have to pay for the expenses out of your own pocket and claim them back later like we did. So, it is a good idea to bring enough funds to cover a possible medical expense. Or, you can bring a credit card with a large balance that you can use in an emergency.