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Turks and Caicos; there was no phone service, no
texting, no email — no nothing. Despite these stumbling
blocks the crew had contacted DAN and immediately
started the process of caring for my husband.
Approximately 11 hours later I made it to shore.
Happily reunited with my husband, I finally made my
first call to DAN. It was late at night, but I desperately
hoped someone would answer and reassure me that
the bills would be taken care of and that they had
everything they needed to process the paperwork.
I breathed a sigh of relief when someone answered,
assured me a claim was open and told me everything
would be fine. Having someone available who could
make me feel better despite the late hour is a level of
customer service I haven’t experienced anywhere else.
The next morning we returned to the chamber. The
doctor explained what had happened — the effects
on Richard — and told us he had responded well to
the chamber treatment. Richard was to undergo 2.5
more hours of hyperbaric therapy that day. As he lay
there in the chamber, I began to worry again. How
soon would they want to be paid, how did the claims
process work, and how were we going to keep up with
the out-of-pocket expenses? More questions raced
through my mind as I thought about the logistics of
the coming days. The doctor had assured me Richard
would be fine, which left me free to worry about
money. The out-of-pocket expenses at that point had
already amounted to a little more than $500; where
on earth would we come up with the money for the
changed airline tickets, hotel rooms, taxis and food?
I called DAN again, and the representative was
pleasant and happy to help. She assured me that my
concerns were understandable and that DAN would
take care of everything for me. She explained that they
had dealt with this doctor many times and that we
would have no problems with him. She asked about
our primary health insurance and assured me that
interfacing with that company wouldn’t be a problem
either. She let me know we had plenty of time to
take care of the paperwork, and she did a great job
of making me feel like everything would be OK. She
asked about Richard’s condition, how I was doing and
whether we needed anything else. I let her know how
much better I felt knowing DAN was there for us.
Once Richard got out of the chamber, we had all day
to wait until the boat could pick us up in the evening.
The doctor had written a letter stating that Richard
was medically unfit to fly on Sept. 21 (our planned
departure date) but that flying on Sept. 22 wouldn’t be
a problem. When I spoke to the airline, they told me
it would cost us $700 to change our flights to the next
day. Then the cell phone cut out three times, and we
were left with no new reservations. We started adding
up the out-of-pocket costs we were faced with, and we
simply didn’t have the $1,500 we needed. I panicked
once again — the thought of Richard flying before the
date the doctor recommended scared me to death.
We returned to the boat to keep our expenses
down; the hotel was costing us $200 a night, and we
had already paid for three more nights aboard the
boat. DAN tried many times to email us forms to get
the process started to prepay for the flight home, and
the representatives never sounded frustrated or upset
— they were always reassuring and pleasant. When
we went ashore for dinner that Friday night, I made
one last call to DAN to see if we could get some help
so Richard did not have to risk a recurrence of his
symptoms by flying home before the date the doctor
recommended. At 8 p.m. a young man called me back.
DAN representative Toby Koy had gotten permission
from the claims department to prepay for our tickets
to fly Sunday. I was elated. Toby even had the airline
ticket agent on the other line, and he told me our
tickets would be changed free of charge. I was so
grateful and relieved.
I wish I had the names of all the DAN representatives
who helped us; they all played a part in keeping us
grounded and as psychologically stable as was humanly
possible. Divers Alert Network works — simply and
efficiently. This is insurance we will forever buy and
believe in. To DAN we are eternally grateful.
AD
“I had no way of knowing his condition, what was happening,
the severity of the hit or if he was even alive.”
