Help please. Partner suffers broken ankle and is then flown home without treatment

Foggy

My partner was walking down a ramp from a hotel in Majorca when she slipped and broke her ankle - two clean breaks resulting in an operation to put metal pins in.

Anyway, when she fell, the Thomson rep said "I keep telling them not to wash this in the morning, someone falls over every day, although not as bad as yours" witnessed by others.

So she is helped onto the bus and eventually got on the plane via wheelchair pushed by her 8 year old daughter.

When I collected her from the airport and took her to A&E she was x-rayed and the breaks were diagnosed. The staff could not believe she was allowed to be flown in her condition but she said that as she could move her toes she thought it was just a sprain. Pain threshold in women!

She is still in hospital 5 days later.

She has recently started a new job and consequently on probation. She has been told she will not be able to walk without crutches for up to 8 weeks given the severity of the breaks.

Obviously this is a case for a compensation claim but I am lost as to where to start. To be honest those ambulance chasing adverts are a bit repulsive and we will probably just put it down to 'well accidents happen' but I am concerned that she may lose her job over this and we may have to sell the house if she is not able to work in the near future.

I have also taken time off for childcare, domestics etc and this is proving difficult.

I'm not sure if its worth claiming to be honest as it was abroad and I certainly couldn't afford legal bills.

Any advice appreciated

black-saturn

Could you claim on the travel insurance?

ttoli

İ used to be a holiday rep overseas and things may have changed but the important thing is to get the Reps name(dont suppose that She got witness dets?).By the Rep saying that, there is i believe some admission of liability, personally i would do the following; tell the Thompson Rep in resort (phone the hotel when she is there)(was it the hotel or transfer rep?) that you need their dets for 'an insurance claim',
then contact Thomsons, if you contact the company first they will run it by their legal team 1st,then contact resort, all this takes time. İ would certainly seek legal advice (some solicitors offer free adv), and mention to Thomson that have done so. Good luck

LondonDiva

Not sure, but wouldn't it would be quicker and less stress to claim the costs and incidentals on the travel insurance?

ttoli

My point was that the tour operator/Hotel were aware of this problem and seemingly done nothing about it resulting in an injury to a guest, rendering them liable. Did they get a completed accident form whilst in resort- this would help?

Foggy

Black Saturn - dug out travel insurance and email sent
Ttoli - Yes we have reps' name- she was the hotel rep- and witness's details. We are not interested in profit but you're right about it being preventable and that's what makes it so annoying. The witness insisted to the rep that an accident form was completed but my partner has not seen this. Apparently the rep replied "I know" when asked to fill in the accident form

Thanks all

budgetflyer

If in fact this is a reoccuring accident due to a dangerous ramp , the Thomson rep is aware of it, the hotel is aware of it, then what does it take to get someone to do something about it?

ANSWER :It takes them to pay out a MASSIVE WAD OF CASH IN COMPENSATION.

Like you -I hate this compensation culture, but unfortunately,sometimes that is the only way to get companies to make changes.
Oh and Im not talking about H&S extremes like a window cleaner needing a scaffold to clean upstairs windows etc

If its just an accident or mistake then fair enough, but if the same "accident" KEEPS REOCCURRING then that is bad practice/incompetence/couldnt care less

Often in these reoccuring situs, only when someone is KILLED or the business suffers financial loss is anything done

saveapenny

here is a few threads of Holiday Truths
http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/viewforum.php?f=49 main thread
http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=57897 illness injury thread

They have a very good solicitor who helps them out alot her names Ros and her contact details can be found on the site.
I would contact her ASAP she works on no win no fee

jasonrat

obviously there was no due diligence there either so that will help youe case

Burtie_2

I think you need legal assistance, your travel insurance probably won't pay up because they were not notified at the time and no medical assistance was saught whilst abroad - there are many clauses about not being able to do anything without their authorisation.

Foggy

Thanks to all particularly budget flyer for giving me the will not to just forget about this - you're right the same thing can happen again unless there is a deterrent - and to saveapenny for the links to a very helpful website