Injured whilst abroad

burlington6

Just after some advice from anyone in the know.

One of our ski party was hit with a larger bottle thrown from a bar late one evening last week.

The individual hit wasn't actually in the bar.

The person who threw it was taken to the police station, interviewed and had his passport taken ( UK resident )

The person hit was taken to the nearest hospital by ambulance, treated and sent home early the next morning.

( the incident happened around 19:30 )

The injury required 8 staples to the head to stop the blood, which had to be shaved, and although the individual did have an EU heath card, it was in the hotel so had to pay for all treatment.

My question is, can the member of our party try and get some of their costs back and any compensation due to the effect it had on their holiday and their life now they have arrived home.

They had winter cover insurance, the excess of which makes claiming for the medical cost pretty pointless.

( I have posted on the insurance board but I know it isn't quite as popular as this particular one)

Gloomendoom

If you know who did it, then sue them for compensation.

burlington6

Gloomendoom wrote: »

If you know who did it, then sue them for compensation.

He was named in the police investigation but copies of his passport etc are still with the Austrian police

pinkshoes

The compensation would have to be quantified, but if you have the person's name, then yes you can claim.

We claimed against a drunk person who fell over and went head first into the side of our car, causing a huge dent!

We claimed for the cost of repair and the cost of all phone calls, plus half day of holiday to sort the car out.

PeacefulWaters

Yes they can sue.

But surely they have travel insurance?

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Insurance excesses have gone up - winter sports policies seem to be around the £75 - £100 mark now.

Ah, well. It's better than the many thousands of pounds a lot of the people claiming on those insurances end up incurring.

Not sure whether the effort involved in pursuing somebody for that amount of money (when they were obviously being a drunken idiot in a bar, so hardly likely to respond with a PayPal offer) is going to be worth it.

Poppie68

3 identical threads .

onlyroz

If you're talking about an amount not much greater than the insurance excess then I'd let it go.

coolcait

If the hospital was a private hospital, the EHIC would have been of limited use, but some costs might have been reclaimed.

If it was a state hospital, then many, not all, of the medical costs could have been reclaimed while still in Austria, once the EHIC had been recovered. The injured party would still have had to pay any costs which would have been payable by an Austrian resident.

This leaflet covers a lot of the questions which people have about getting health treatment abroad. P.15 gives information on reclaiming costs after you have returned home. P.16 gives information on reclaiming while in Austria (if I have misunderstood the OP, and the injured party - or a representative - is still in Austria):

https://www.uclh.nhs.uk/PandV/PIL/Patient%20information%20leaflets/Health%20Advice%20for%20Travellers.pdf

I haven't read the whole leaflet, so the injured party should check the rest of it, in case there's something else in there which might be helpful.

Compensation for loss of holiday, impact on life etc, would probably have to be done through a 'claim for damages' type action.