What Happens When a Vacation Ends in an Emergency Room Visit
What Happens When a Vacation Ends in an Emergency Room Visit
Life doesn’t come with an instruction manual when your vacation ends with an emergency room visit.
Photo by Anna Shvets: https://www.pexels.com/photo/heart-rate-monitor-3845129/
The reality is injuries during vacations and unexpected medical emergencies are more common than you’d think. One minute you’re building sandcastles with your kids or checking out museums in Europe. The next minute you’re loading yourself or a loved one onto a stretcher in an unfamiliar hospital.
But there’s good news.
Knowing what to do after a vacation injury helps you stay calm when things don’t go according to plan. Knowing how to handle the medical and legal stuff will also help protect your health and legal rights down the road.
Here’s what you’ll discover:
- Typical Vacation Accidents
- Necessary Steps To Take After A Vacation Accident
- Handling Medical Bills When You’re Hurt on Vacation
- Why Contacting a Lawyer After an Accident is Important
- Protecting Your Rights After Sustaining an Injury on Vacation
Common Vacation Accidents
Vacation accidents range from minor cuts and bruises to serious head injuries.
In fact, according to the Centers for Disease Control, there were 43.5 million visits to hospital emergency departments for injury-related reasons in the United States alone.
Millions more happened to people vacationing outside of the United States.
The types of accidents that commonly occur while on vacation include:
- Slip and falls at hotels and resorts
- Driving accidents while navigating unfamiliar roads
- Drowning incidents or other water accidents
- Adventure activity accidents involving zip-lining, jet skis, parasailing, etc.
- Food poisoning or allergic reactions
Most falls occur due to slick surfaces. Think hotel bathrooms, wet pool decks, and unstable walkways at rental properties.
Car accidents are another common vacation injury. That could mean hitting a deer on a rural highway or getting into a collision with another driver who makes a careless mistake. Or it could mean the injured party was behind the wheel.
No matter where a vacation accident happens… You should always seek medical treatment right away.
Steps To Take After A Vacation Injury Occurs
This is easily the part most people mess up.
The actions you take in the minutes and hours after an accident sets the tone for everything that follows. With any accident injury, it is important to contact a Dallas injury law firm as soon as possible to learn about your legal rights and options.
Follow these steps after sustaining an injury on vacation:
- Seek medical attention. Call 911 or visit the ER immediately, even if you think you’re fine.
- Take photos and videos of any injuries
- Get the names of any witnesses who might have seen what happened
- File an incident report with the staff at your hotel, resort, or vacation rental property
- Keep any medical records and receipts related to the accident
Medical records are absolutely critical. Without that paperwork, it will be nearly impossible to prove the cause and severity of your injury.
Medical Bills You Sustained From Vacation Injuries
In addition to the physical pain and discomfort of being injured while on vacation. There’s also the financial burden.
Medical bills from emergency rooms are expensive. Throw in out-of-network rates, surprise billing, and expensive medical services your insurance doesn’t cover. And you’ve got a recipe for financial disaster.
That’s why most travelers don’t bother with travel insurance.
But what most people don’t realize is…
If someone else was at fault for the accident that caused your injury, you shouldn’t be stuck with those hospital bills. Either a hotel that refused to fix a broken stair railing. Or a negligent driver who crossed the center line.
Someone else should be paying those bills so you can focus on recovering from your injuries.
Contacting a Lawyer for Accident Injuries
Needless to say, this part confuses most people.
Just because you were injured while on vacation doesn’t mean you should just forget about it when you get home. Staying put to let a vacation injury heal is one thing. Ignoring your legal options is another.
You should speak to a lawyer when:
- Someone else was at fault or negligent when the injury occurred
- You start receiving medical bills related to the injury
- Insurance companies offer you a settlement
- The injury has ongoing consequences that require medical treatment
- The person who caused the injury denies responsibility
Vacation injuries can and do happen. But they’re not as simple as “rental cars cause more damages than accidents involving personal vehicles.”
Motor vehicle crashes were actually the number one cause of death due to injuries while traveling abroad according to CDC’s travelers health data.
Accidents happen. But that doesn’t mean you should just roll over and accept the losses.
Just like there are time limits on filing your taxes. There’s also a time limit on filing a personal injury claim.
Typically, that window begins from the date of the accident — not when your vacation started or ended.
Protecting Your Legal Rights After an Injury on Vacation
The steps you take in the hours and days after a vacation injury help determine how your claim unfolds.
Basically, you want to build your case starting on day one.
Things you should do to protect your rights include:
- Retain all medical records related to the injury. This includes doctors visits, diagnostics, medications, and prognosis.
- Avoid signing any documents from insurance adjusters. It’s common for these companies to offer quick settlements that don’t come close to covering your losses. Always consult a lawyer before agreeing to anything.
- Preserve any evidence related to the injury. Take photos of the accident site, your injuries, damaged property, or any conditions that led to the injury. You should also keep copies of your booking confirmations, any hotel correspondence, and your itinerary.
- Write down everything you can remember about the accident and injury. Just like with any type of legal claim, your memory will fade over time. Recreating the timeline of events while they’re fresh helps reinforce those memories later on.
Remember: Businesses have entire legal departments on their side. You shouldn’t have to face them alone.
Wrapping It Up
Hopefully, you’ll never need this information. But if your vacation ends in an emergency room. Follow these steps to help protect your health and legal rights:
- Seek medical attention and document everything related to the injury
- Don’t assume you’re stuck with out-of-network medical bills from accident injuries
- Know your legal options for recovering losses if someone else was at fault
- Contact a lawyer before it’s too late and you lose your right to file a claim
- Don’t make any deal with insurance companies without consulting legal representation first
A lot of people spend their life savings on a vacation. The last thing you should have to worry about is footing the bill for someone else’s mistakes.
Get the right help as soon as possible and recover from your injury. Don’t waste your time fighting against insurance companies by yourself.
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