Are You Ready if Disaster Strikes? 12 Tips on Handling an Emergency Abroad

Unfortunately, our travelling lifestyle, which we chose in order to insulate ourselves from the many stresses of modern life, gives us no immunity from disaster.

Disaster struck recently, when Mark skied off a mountain on my birthday and was airlifted to hospital.

As a lover of aviation, I was quite cross that HE got a helicopter ride on MY birthday!

I also felt it was an extreme way to get out of buying me a birthday dinner.

Fortunately, given the nature of the accident, he broke only his tibia, and quite cleanly, so he should make a full recovery. However the whole experience has thrown into sharp relief some of the issues you might face should an emergency occur while you are travelling at home or abroad.

Here, I share twelve important lessons that this unfortunate experience has brought to light.

Read on to make sure you are ready if disaster strikes.

1. Know the Emergency Number – and have it programmed into your phone. Note that in some countries, Police, Ambulance and Fire may have separate numbers. Calls are free, so no credit is required, and most smartphones can access ‘Emergency call’ on the front screen, even if the handset is locked, has no signal with its usual provider, or sometimes, even if there is no SIM. It should connect to the local emergency number, but it is best to be prepared. The e-mergency app available from Google Play or the App Store will display the emergency numbers in whichever country you are in and allow you to call.
   • In the UK, it is 999 or the pan European 112. This can connect you to the ambulance, fire, police, coast guard, search and rescue, and bomb disposal services. In an emergency, dial 999. For non-emergency healthcare, you can dial 111.
   • In most of Europe and over 100 countries around the world, it is 112. Click here for a list of countries which use 112 as their emergency number.
   • In the US it is 911.
   • In Australia, it is 000, although 112 will also work. Installing the free Emergency+ app will help you to connect to the correct service and will display your current location details on your smartphone screen.
   • In New Zealand, it is 111.
   • In Africa, Asia, Central and South America, and the rest of Oceana, emergency numbers vary widely. Click here for a list of emergency numbers elsewhere in the world on Wikipedia or Click here to download a pdf of emergency numbers worldwide. Or click on these links to find the e-mergency app available from Google Play or the App Store.
2. LIONEL – A Good Acronym for What To Say to Emergency Services
   • Location – accurate location such as Grid Reference, Street name and number, What3words (See 9 ‘Know Where You Are’ below)
   • Incident – What has happened
   • Other services required – fire & rescue, cave rescue, coastguard etc.
   • Number of casualties
   • Extent of injuries and/or environmental conditions if relevant
   • Location again – and the logistics of getting emergency services to the scene or a casualty out
   • Read more in detail about LIONEL in this short blog.
3. Carry Important Information With You At All Times
   • Insurance Details – Mark had to give details of our insurance policy as assurance they would cover the cost of the helicopter for the airlift to hospital. We always carry a note of our policy number, provider, and their contact details while skiing. You could photograph your policy on your mobile phone.
   • Means of Payment – Mark had to pay 200 euros upfront for piste rescue, so it was good he had his credit card with him.
   • EHIC/GHIC card – Mark had to present his GHIC (Global Health Insurance Card) at the hospital to show he was entitled to hospital treatment. BEFORE YOU TRAVEL, MAKE SURE YOUR CARD IS IN DATE. A Swedish gentleman in the emergency room had an out of date card. He had applied for a new card, but it hadn’t arrived before he travelled, so he was frantically trying to contact home to get the new card scanned and sent to him.
   • Proof of ID – Mark needed photo proof of ID – a photo card driving licence. Again, check this is in date before you travel, since these do expire!
   • Charger Cable – Spouses can’t travel in the helicopter, although I had to get back to the truck to look after our four dogs, so I couldn’t go to hospital with him anyway. When Mark arrived at the hospital, an hour-and-a-half from the ski resort, he had no mobile phone charger, and the hospital didn’t provide one. So his phone eventually ran out of charge and I could not contact him! Fortunately, he was able to borrow one from the Frenchman in the next bed.
   • Emergency Information e.g. drug allergies, medical conditions or emergency contacts – click here to find out how to add emergency information to the lock screen of your smart phone.
4. Report an Accident to the Insurers Straight Away
   • I had to get contact details (Name, address, email, phone) of the hospital and department where Mark was admitted for the insurers. There are four hospitals in Aosta, where Mark was airlifted.
5. Know where to find all the important information
   • If you are the one in your household who organises insurance, finance etc, make sure your partner knows where to find the information. If Mark had been unconscious (or worse) and I didn’t know where to find these details, I would have had serious problems.
6. DO Make a Fuss
   • A few days after he was discharged from hospital, Mark had a slight pain in his calf. When he went back to the hospital for a follow up visit, he almost didn’t mention it. When he did, they rushed him off to have an ultrasound scan and diagnosed thrombosis – a potentially life-threatening condition which goes hand in hand with immobility.
7. Driving
   • Although I took my Class C lorry licence so I could drive our 6-wheel truck, The Beast in just such an emergency, I am ashamed to say I have been lazy about keeping up my skills. Ironically, I planned to do more driving after we got the mountainous driving involved with a ski trip out of the way… Which simply demonstrates that there is no time like the present!
   • The Beast was parked an hour up a narrow hairpin road with sheer drops. If I fluffed a gear change or over used the drum brakes, which would cause them to overheat and fade, the consequences could be fatal. As such, I refused to drive the truck down the mountain. The lesson here is to keep up your driving skills so that it is second nature if you ever need to use them in anger.
   • Mark should be fit to drive 40 days after the accident. If not, kind friends have offered to help and drive the truck down the mountain.
   • I always urge ladies to learn how to drive their leisure vehicles, and for men to encourage and enable this. In the UK, both the Caravan and Motorhome Club (CMC) and the Camping and Caravanning Club (C&CC) offer caravan towing and motorhome manoeuvring courses to members and non members. As a complete newbie, I thoroughly enjoyed my two-day Practical Caravan course with CMC and found what I learned invaluable.
8. Know Your Leisure Vehicle Systems
   • As with driving, it’s important that all parties understand the systems in your caravan, motorhome, or camper. When Mark was in hospital, I had a water leak and had to shut down the drinking water system. The leisure batteries also drained themselves and alarmed at 4 a.m.! When I visited Mark in hospital, I left The Beast up a mountain in sub-zero temperatures. I had to empty all the grey and black water as well as close down all her systems, including draining the water heater so that it would not suffer frost damage.
9. Know Where You Are – Although we booked into an apartment near the hospital, it was in a pedestrian area with no vehicular access. Also, it had no street address! Hard to believe, I know. To check in, the landlord just sent us the name of the road, a video of the portico entrance, and the floor and number of the flat! Our previous accommodation had a street address, but was down such a tiny alley it was not on Google Earth. So, when we had a medical emergency (Mark had thrombosis), how do I get an ambulance?!
   • Note Local Points of Interest – I noted the names of local businesses next door and opposite our building’s entrance so that I could direct help to us.
   • What3words is a geocode app which identifies any location on the surface of the earth to within 3 metres. It is two dimensional, indicating only ground level, so it does not show what floor you’re on. Follow this link for instructions on how to find your What3words location.
   • Camping Apps – When we had a medical emergency in Montenegro, I noted that park4night has the geographical co-ordinates of park ups on each listing. We were camping at a ruined fort, so we also had that as a point of reference.
   • Android Emergency Location Service (ELS) – An Android phone with Android 10 or later operating system has an Emergency Location Service (ELS) which will automatically send your location to emergency services when you call or text them. ELS will use the emergency location bypass to send your location, even if you’ve turned off your device’s location settings. If ELS is off, your mobile operator may still send your location. Android ELS is currently available in most of Europe, the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia, however, availability might vary depending on your specific location and network provider. 
   • iPhone SOS – the instructions vary for different iPhone models, but iPhone SOS allows you to make an emergency call and send your phone’s location to all your emergency contacts.
   • Be Prepared to Direct Emergency Services in Person – If you are in a difficult-to-find location and it is safe to leave the casualty, go to the entrance or a prominent place to look out for and direct emergency services when they arrive. This could save precious time.
   • Check In to a Hotel! – We subsequently moved to a hotel with English-speaking reception staff. They could call for help 24-7 if we needed it and knew where to direct emergency services, which was very reassuring.
10. Don’t rely on your Insurance
    • Delay: Deny: Defend – Insurance companies are in business to make money, not help you. The way they make money is by not paying out claims. They are well known for their policy of Delay: Deny: Defend. They will mess you about (Delay), then Deny your claim (in our case, they got us to pay upfront for Mark’s operation, Delayed with the hospital to prevent it going ahead, then, even though they reassured us verbally and in writing that the operation was covered, they Denied us payment!) I have had to play a very hard game with them and we have yet to get a penny out of them.
    • Financial Impact – to date, our out-of-pocket expenses for medical treatment, transport, and emergency accommodation run into five figures. Since we are insured, it surprised me that we have had to fund so much ourselves upfront, then claim it back. Our credit card is maxed out and without a withdrawal from Mark’s pension, we would have been unable to cover it. As I mentioned, even though our contact at the insurers has told us our claim is approved by the underwriters and promised to expedite payment, we have yet to receive a penny. They promise to respond in five working days, but every five days they come up with some new fatuous request, which gives them another five working days to Delay. So if you have an incident, even if you’re insured, you may need to be prepared to cover significant upfront expenses yourself.
11. Strategies for Dealing with Insurance Companies – I will write more on the specifics of our claim, but here are some tactics you may find helpful when dealing with insurance companies.
    • Let Them Know You Mean Business – As a travel writer, it was only when I told them I had informed my lawyer and publicist about their sharp practice that suddenly, things started to move.
    • Raise an Official Complaint – or threaten to do so. My previous spat with an insurer taught me that in the UK, insurers have to declare all complaints to the regulator, so they fear complaints. Tell them you will raise a complaint or ask for a complaint form. Do not be satisfied with them saying they will raise an internal complaint: for it to count, you need to do it yourself externally.
    • The Insurance Ombudsman – you have to go through the company’s official complaint procedure before you can raise a case with the independent ombudsman. There are specified times within which the insurance company has to reply. However, saying you will raise a complaint and asking the insurer how to contact the ombudsman sends a message that you will not go away quietly.
    • Be Persistent
      • Insurers Delay: Deny: Defend because enough people will simply go away. This makes it financially beneficial to the insurer. They know they are dealing with you at your most vulnerable, and take full advantage of this.
      • They will also try to repatriate you as a first option – then they can discharge their responsibilities and liabilities to the NHS or your home country’s medical system. We wanted to stay in Italy and see through Mark’s treatment with the specialist team who carried out the operation and it took some persistence to allow this to happen.
    • Keep Your Guard Up with the Insurers
      • Take everything they say with a pinch of salt. Our insurers were absolutely charming and on the face of it, bending over backwards to help. However, behind our backs, we have proof they were working against us.
      • Don’t let your guard down when the insurance company contacts are polite compassionate and reassuring. Their objective is to minimise financial impact on themselves, not necessarily to get the best treatment for you.
      • They are nice in the way a con man is nice – to win your trust, and make you lower your guard before they rob you and stab you in the back.
      • Make notes of EVERYTHING, dates, all conversations and promises, and confirm everything in writing. I have a long email chain in which I confirm every conversation I have had with them and everything they have agreed to verbally. They record all telephone conversations, but this is most likely to catch you out rather than protect you!
    • Remember You Are Dealing With People – Be polite and appeal to them, and they are more likely to help you;
      • Backpacking around the Antipodes many years ago, a cancelled flight left me stranded in an airport at 4 a.m. A melee of angry travellers yelled and railed at beleaguered check in staff. “I demand that you put me on another plane!” “I need a jump seat!” “I’ve got to get to Christchurch <insert ludicrous made-up reason here>” When I reached the front of the queue, a stressed-looking lady asked, “How are you?” I replied, “Not so good. I have to get to Christchurch to meet up with my friend. But it seems like you’re having a worse day.” She shot me a pale smile, and said, “Just a minute,” as she left her desk. When she returned, she handed me two boarding passes. I gazed at them like they were two winning Lottery tickets. That day, my travel companion, Sue, and I were among the few passengers from the cancelled flight who left the airport on another flight, almost on time. The moral of the story is that even with faceless institutions, you are dealing with people. I agree that a strategic loss of temper can sometimes yield dividends, but generally, if you are polite, reasonable and nice, people are much more inclined to help you.
12. Schengen or Visa Overstay
    • If Mark is not fit to drive, we may be forced to overstay our visa exempt 90 Schengen days.
    • There is a provision in the Schengen rules to overstay for circumstances beyond your control. Article 33 of the EU Visa Code, (formally known as Regulation (EC) No 810/2009) deals with the procedures for a visa holder to apply for a ‘visa extension’ within the permitted timeframe under certain conditions. This would usually be done by applying as soon as possible to the competent authority of the Member State where the visa holder is residing, providing proof of force majeure or humanitarian reasons which prevent them from leaving the territory. For a pdf listing competent authorities by country, search ‘annex 27 of the visa code handbook pdf’ or click the blue Download button below. Note that even with a valid reason, penalties for overstaying without going through the proper process could be severe, including fines and travel bans. Click here for more information on staying in Europe if your Schengen visa expires.
    • For us, this is an ongoing issue, since we contacted the British Embassy, who passed us on to the Italian Embassy, who don’t reply. The competent authority is the Italian Frontier Police, but they don’t reply either!

In Case of Emergency – The Best Advice: Have a Cup of Tea!

At my first ever Adventure Overland Show, I attended a lecture where an experienced overlander said the first thing to do in an emergency is have a cup of tea. This is a very British way of saying don’t act rashly: you need to stay calm, assess the situation, and come up with a plan.

Have any of you had an emergency on the road?

What is your advice?

For more travel advice and tips, check out my Tips page.

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The Fab Four in front of Nus Castle, Aosta Valley, Italy

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