Hi All

Need some help as a NZ friend of mine, Deane Holland of Waihi (well known Tatooist and Aprillia Racer in NZ) is on tour in Europe, but within a couple of days got injured on a track day and is now in Rijeka Hospital with a broken collarbone, Ribs and Dislocated Shoulder.

He needs surgery within 4 days and wants that done in the UK. Any ideas! Such as perhaps you know a private pilot who'd be willing to fly him back at a reasonable cost. His wife Heidi is battling with the travel insurance to Air Ambulance him back, but still no decision made.

They will stay with us in North Oxfordshire and we would try and get him into a Banbury or Oxford Hospital for repair.

Thanks


Chris

PS: If anyone is in the area and can give Heidi a little support, that would be excellent!

At the risk of being controversial, what makes him think he's entitled to treatment on the NHS if he's from NZ?

The NHS is for people that have contributed to the system, not health tourists from other countries to come and make use of for free!

If for some reason he is entitled then please accept my apologies.

Obviously I don't know the ins and outs of his case but you wouldn't normally operate on any of those injuries. The shoulder would be relocated in the emergency department, fractured ribs don't require surgery and collar bones are very rarely operated on.

Not exactly the helpful response from a fellow bike traveller that we could do with and quite surprisingly xenophobic for this site!

A little help and compassion needed here please, as instead of the dream start to a long awaited, once in a life time trip to Europe, our good friend Heidi is stranded in Croatia with her husband Deane lying in a foreign hospital in quite a lot of pain.

This has been a most unfortunate accident very early on into their trip and they are not out to burden the NHS and have probably never even come across the term "Health Tourists" before and would be deeply hurt and embarrassed to find themselves called that!

As members of the Commonwealth, there is a reciprocal health agreement in place, as there is for UK citizens in Australia and New Zealand. They also have travel insurance that will cover any costs for private hospital treatment, should that be the case and at this time they just want to be in England where it is easier to be understood and where they have good friends, This is the main reason I have posted this thread, as we are just looking for useful suggestions, offers of help and ideas to get Heidi and Deane to England ASAP.

Deane has been unlucky, as the swelling around the shoulder is quite severe and this is where the surgery comes in, as they have to make an incision to widen the shoulder joint before they can relocate the arm, which is at this time just hanging there! Ouch!

I did something similar a few years ago in a remote location much further from the UK than Croatia.
With a broken shoulder I took a scheduled flight back to the UK, via the Dubai hub i.e. making a change of airline there. This was as a "walking wounded" case with my arm in a sling - so long as the casualty can walk onto the aircraft then no one really cares.
My injury was operated upon exactly two weeks after the incident occurred.

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Dave

Hi Dave

That was a concern and thanks for the useful info about "walking wounded". The Hospital have agreed to strap him up and give him some strong painkillers to get through the flight and I will collect them from the Airport when they arrive in my mate's campervan.

Have got some good prices ranging between £55 to £70 each for one way flights via Easyjey, Ryanair and Jet 2, so they may be able to fly out this Saturday.

Cheers

Chris

I suppose the only good news is they have plenty of cash as its the beginning of their trip??

I got my brother back to the uk with broken bones from west Africa using std plane travel. If it was me I would fill up on pain killers, get a big people carrier to the airport and use the money on a first class ticket with a big reclinable seat.

Croatia is only a short time away. Never knew we had a Aussie/NZ health agreement..lucky for him I guess.

If not try companies at small airports local to you for private planes.

Bare in mind that anything they do off their own back the insurance won't pay for....they have their own systems and workers.

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Just read your last post.... Easyjet or Ryan air!, sod that. No room to move or get comfy.

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Glad to hear you got your Bro back safely, but I can't imagine the agony he was in!

I remember a story a few years back when a bloke smashed his Fireblade up on a track day, suffering a broken leg and arm in the process and his quick thinking and 'ard mates scooped him and his bike up off the track and drove him 3 miles and deposited him on the road and drove off! Apparently he made a good recovery and got a full payout for his new Blade!

I have been contacting local pilots and airports and see what turns up and if it is one of the Budget airlines, he'll just have to grin and bear it! As you say, it's a shorter flight!

Thanks for the advice

Chris

Welovebikes, your commitment to helping your friend and finding others to do the same is admirable. Friendships are really tested in time of need.

As a word or two of inspiration, rosa del desierto and I made it to our ranch in Arizona after she dropped her bike and fractured three toes while riding the trampolin de la muerte, southern Colombia. (an old military road built during Colombia's war with Peru in the 1930s). We actually live in Argentina and were en route to Arizona for a couple month stay at our ranch.

Six weeks ago and a couple days after her fall, a general PARO or strike was called by the coffee growers syndicate and a few miners joined in to close all the roads in and out of our location. We just had to grin and bear it - seeking medical assistance from a combination of local doctors and local shamans.

Not to say three fractured toes are equal to the substantial injuries suffered by your friend, but, here comes the inspirational part - gas and food, neither of which were readily available a couple days after the road blocks were erected were shared with us by locals. And, 15 days later while the roadblocks were still in place, it was a local Colombian who knew the Director of the regional hospital and arranged for an ambulance to run us through the roadblocks by carrying a pass signed by the Director of the hospital.

We were able via ambulance to reach the closest airport and fly out on a small plane to Bogota - and then on to Arizona.

Here is my advice. Don't be so quick to abandon the locals, and Croatia. Perhaps your good friends, Heidi and Deane might want to consider riding out the injuries and allowing their medical insurance to pay for surgery etc right there in Croatia. We have ridden Croatia, it is a wonderful place to be and now a very peaceful country. Excellent medical care can be found, and many times medical insurance companies are more willing to pay in country medical bills.

In rosa del desierto's case, we have to pay all meical bills up front - to be reimbursed once we return to Argentina where we purchased our medical policies, on the other hand all the medical bills generated in Colombia were forwarded directly to our medical insurance company in argentina and we were not out of pocket.

Just some thoughts and the inspiration is: Croatia is not a bad place to recover and maybe , just maybe, your friends insurance company may pay rent for your friends even while he is an outpatient.

Our prayers are with you , Heidi and Deane - rosa del desierto says - "this too will pass"

Just an after thought for your friend's consideration....: it was also local Colombians who found safe parking for our two motorcycles and - even with the roadblocks in place - managed to get the Director of the closest border DIAN to extent our temporary vehicle import permits for more time then we would ever need! "Shelter in place" would be the advice I would give Deane and Heidi if they were my friends.

xfiltrate

I'll have to ask the Barmy Army this has they are loaded into our Ambulances by the dozens & taken off to our Hospitals for treatment, after night on the piss after a game, I suppose we can ask the British Sailors if there entitled to our hospital & rescue facilities before we pull them out of the drink !

I really think a retraction of that Statement is in order !

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As mentioned above, we - the UK - have a reciprocal health agreement in place with New Zealand [and Australia], which means citizens from both countries are legally entitled to free publicly-funded health from each others' national health services.

Thank goodness the agreement exists, because guess what? .. in 2006 I crashed on a gravel down at the bottom of South Island, NZ, which resulted in similar injuries to Deane's. I broke my collarbone in two places; ribs and fingers broken .. and worst of all, I managed to smash-up my left wrist pretty badly.

The Kiwi system, however, did me proud:

• A free 80 km St John Ambulance emergency ride to Invercargill Hospital
• Superb in-house specialist orthopaedic surgery + anaesthetist services to fix my wrist - free
• Excellent inpatient nursing care and accommodation for four days and nights. [Shame about the grub though, which was nearly, but not quite, as bad as the stuff dished-out in our UK hospitals! ] – again all free
• Top-notch follow-up outpatient treatment .. totally free.

I say to all Kiwis [and Aussies]: as a UK taxpayer all my life, please make full use of our NHS system if you need it. As far as I'm concerned, you are all more than welcome.

Thanks

Keith
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Right Way Round ...

Chris,
Get him to A&E asap on arrival.
Say nothing about where the accident occurred.
Just answer questions as circumspectly as possible.
A&E staff, in my experience, are very good about this aspect. Their function is to save life and limb and not be concerned about the cause, but medical diagnosis will be interested in the cause in as far as it assists with the diagnosis.

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Dave

Hi xfiltrate and rosa del desierto

You two must have some amazing stories and thanks for the kind words and touching advice and glad you made it to your ranch, after all that time, which must have been a painful time to go through and hope rosa del desierto made a full recovery.

Believe it or not, we are great friends who haven't met yet They have been planning this trip for years and we have both booked the same Hotel in Bristol for this Saturday night, as Heidi is a guest judge at a Bull Terrier show and we were looking forward to meeting up and showing them round and then they were coming back with us to stay in the Cotswolds for a couple of days before heading home in July. As a bike dealer in the UK, Deane bought three Aprilia RSV's off me and on each occasion sent me £7,000 to cover buying the bikes and shipping them off to NZ, all based purely on trust! Hence the bond. I also have a Pan European ready for them to use while they are here, but I guess that won't be needed now!

About staying in Croatia, this is definitely a consideration, as this is a comment in Heidi's last message: " Apparently the doctors here are pretty well regarded if it comes down to it. I also have a room that I can rent here " She has the landlord of where she is staying going to the Hospital now, acting as translator, so as you say, the Croatians are very warm friendly people, as I found when I hitched through there in the 70's when it was still all Yugoslavia.

They will be reading these posts and I'm sure will find your advice very helpful.

Will have a look on HU to see if you have any adventures on there written down!

Take care

Thanks

Chris

Hi Keith

Thanks for your words of encouragement and advice on checking in when they arrive at a UK Hospital. We know some of the staff in Banbury and should be able to get him admitted there OK.

Glad to hear that the NZ Health Service looked after you so well after your spill and hope you mended well. Must have been a great trip though, even with the unhappy ending, but we all know what can happen and that if it does, it's just part of the trip!

Hi Paul

Fully agree with your comments and the thought of the Anzac loyalty, assistance and sacrifices in the past did pass through my mind, but didn't want to get drawn into a pointless argument!

Will let the Brazilian Health Service treat the Barmy Army this time round and hope they have a good supply of peroxide bleach in to scrub into all the wounds they are due to receive! I bet they won't winge about NHS treatment after that!

All the best

Chris

And when at A and E, don't volunteer that injury happened a few days ago. I recall trying to check myself in once (can't exactly remember what I did: twisted knee?) and they asked when it happened and I said 2 days ago. They told me to get lost as the event has to have occurred within the last 24 hours for an A and E doctor to see me.

Good luck with sorting the situation.

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