Losing a child is possibly the worst experience you can ever go through, and financial woes should be the last thing on your mind as you grieve. However, one Australian mother had both of these to contend with after going into labour while on holiday in Bali.
Peta Kinnane was on holidays with her partner, and 32 weeks’ pregnant, when she began experiencing contractions. She was rushed to hospital for an emergency C-section, and, devastatingly, doctors were unable to save her baby; it is believed that the placenta had pulled away from the uterus.
Describing herself as “empty and broken”, Peta also had a very important message to send out to any other mums-to-be who are travelling while pregnant: be sure to read the fine print, and ensure that your insurance company covers you at all stages of pregnancy.
Peta only found out after her ordeal that her insurance broker, Cover More, only covered her for the first 26 weeks of pregnancy – leaving her with a whopping $15,000 medical bill.
Initially, the company said they could not cover the medical bills and the cost of the trip home to Perth, but they reversed their decision this week “as a gesture of goodwill and empathy”.
Peta’s doctor had given her a certificate before travelling, stating that she was “low-risk” and fit to fly.
Now recovering, Peta said: “I’ve been flying to Bali a lot and I’ve always been through that same insurance company, so I just thought everything would be okay. If I knew I wasn’t insured, I wouldn’t have travelled.”
She went on to urge anyone thinking of flying beyond 26 weeks to double-check the conditions of their insurance.
