A Scottish holidaymaker has found himself stuck with a £20,000 hospital bill after suffering a heart attack whilst on holiday in Tenerife, despite having travel insurance. Graham Orr and his fiancée, Julie Shirra, were getting ready to go to a water park on May 28th when he began to feel pains in his arm and jaw.
Realising he had all the symptoms of a heart attack, they called a taxi and asked the driver to take them to the nearest hospital instead, opting for a private hospital under the impression that it would be covered by their insurance.
However, because Graham failed to mention he suffers from asthma on his insurance form, the company have refused to cover his medical expenses. After being in ICU for four days, he was moved to a ward and told that he had a bill of more than 20,000 euros for his treatment.
Graham, who has never had previous heart problems, went for a health check-up four months ago at home in Inverness, where he was told his heart and blood pressure were fine. He’s currently trying to contact his GP for proof to send to his employers as he won’t get any wages without documentation, and Julie is losing her wages by staying here as well.
Since they’re unable to leave Tenerife, Julie’s missing one of her daughter’s graduation and her other’s wedding anniversary. In fact, the stress of the situation has had such a strong effect on the pair that Julie’s daughter flew over out of worry to help them cope.
In order to help manage the bill, Graham’s stepdaughter and daughter in Inverness have taken to GoFundMe to try and raise money to pay the bill. Graham said: “I’ve got the feeling that if I can’t produce what they want me to produce, I’ll not get the ticket to fly me home. It’s not really sunk in yet. It still feels kind of surreal to me and I think when I get home, I’ll realise how close to death I actually was.”
“At first I was really quite embarrassed about the fundraiser and getting paranoid that people would think I’m not legitimate.” However, the fundraiser has restored his faith in humanity and if there is any money left over, he plans to put it back into the community to help others.
More details about Graham’s GoFundMe page can be found here>>
