|
My experience with swine flu
Looking back every instinct I had said don’t do it, but when you’re on tight deadlines and there is a recession at your door step, you can’t exactly tell your boss that you’re scared of travelling abroad especially without travel insurance.
The company I worked for (note I have recently resigned) needed me to travel to Mexico which had been badly hit by the Swine Flu epidemic, as part of a deal we were doing. I worked for a clothes company which was privately owned and my boss, when travelling to Mexico a while back he discovered a cheap but amazing distributor, and since our stock turnaround was so high, we needed certain pieces ASAP. He ultimately gathered that it would be cheaper for me to go through than hiring a courier company.
But, I’m deviating, what I was unaware of at the time, was that the Swine Flu epidemic was sweeping the world and becoming a huge threat. I mentioned earlier that my gut feel was to refuse to go, but against my better judgement I boarded the plane and left for Mexico, having not much time to prepare, all that was certain was the hotel I would be staying at my ticket, no travel insurance at all.
I laughed at the ‘doctor’s masks,’ being worn by people on the plane, thinking that they were being hypochondriacs. I even made a tasteless joke to the woman sitting next to me around the fact that these ‘masked bandits’, had to eat at some point, to which we both giggled.
As I got off the plane however I started feeling a little ‘fluey’, but I had carried my emergency medication so I wasn’t nervous, I would take a few generic antibiotics have a citrus drink of sorts and be as right as rain. As I surveyed the airport I began to really take notice of all the people wearing masks.
At the hotel I started feeling a lot worse, so I asked the receptionist for my key, grabbed a bottle of water, drank my pills and fell asleep. Only to be woken up by this intense need to throw up. Sure it was a 24 hour bug I stayed in my hotel room for the next few hours. By day two I was feeling a whole lot worse! I asked the receptionist to call me cab and I went straight to the hospital.
The doctor hardly examined me, but announced with a concerned look that I had contracted Swine Flu and needed to be booked into the hospital. I missed my meeting with my supplier, the next day feeling a little better but not a lot; I was rudely awoken by a nurse who demanded payment for the past three days I had spent in hospital. I settled the week’s bill and found that I was running out of money fast! Again, please note, I had no travel insurance.
Feeling a quite a bit better after my week in hospital I went to the front desk to checkout because as you know, you do miss home when you are ill. Unfortunately for me, this is where the drama began; because I was told that I couldn’t leave for another three days because I needed to be observed. I phoned my boss and asked for a loan as I had by then completely run out of money.
Needless to say, I missed my flight back to South Africa and owed my company about R5000 in debt, which I am still paying off. So to cut a really long story short, I would like to remind all of you out there, that travel insurance is really important. You never, ever know what could happen and it’s best to be safe, than in my case, sorry.
|
