A grandmother of five, Margaret Houghton, 65, is facing expensive medical bills after falling ill with pneumonia during a family vacation to Egypt.
Margaret, who hails from Warrington, Cheshire, was on the trip of a lifetime with her husband, Dave, their daughter, Kate, and three of their grandchildren when she contracted the illness towards the end of their two-week getaway.
After being admitted to the Sharm Peace Hospital in Sharm El-Sheikh, Margaret’s family was dismayed to discover that their travel insurance policy, for which they paid a premium of £165, would not cover her escalating medical costs, already exceeding £27,000.
The family is now racing against time to cover Margaret’s treatment expenses, with doctors indicating she may require a further two weeks of hospitalisation due to complications from a bacterial infection.
Aileen Houghton, Margaret’s daughter-in-law, aged 41, revealed that the travel insurance company, No Limits, found discrepancies in Margaret’s GP records after scrutinising them. No Limits specialises in providing coverage to holidaymakers with pre-existing medical conditions.
Aileen explained the situation: “My sister-in-law filled in all the travel insurance to the best of her knowledge, she’s not a dishonest person, she’s not like that. The travel insurance have reviewed the full GP record and my sister-in-law’s mistakenly missed off some conditions, unrelated as far as I can tell as to why she’s in hospital.”, reports Lancs Live.
The family is struggling to cope with the financial burden, with Aileen explaining: “They’ve said she’s paid £165 and if the conditions were on it would have been £245, so it’s been under-declared by 32% and they’re only willing to pay 67% of the bills. My mother-in-law’s on disability benefits – she doesn’t have thousands of pounds, none of us do.”
The situation has taken a toll on the family’s well-being, with Aileen revealing: “We’ve tried appealing to the travel insurance, but they’re not willing to do anything. My mother-in-law is struggling to get well because she’s stressing about everything and the whole family’s just starting to fall apart, to be honest.”
It emerged that Margaret’s extensive medical history, including atrial fibrillation, esophageal dysmotility, bladder dysfunction, fibromyalgia, depression, and GORD, had not been disclosed to the insurers. Her daughter Kate had only listed her diagnoses of COPD, type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and heart failure on the forms.
The family has managed to raise nearly £3,000 through a GoFundMe page, but faces a daunting bill of at least £8,600. Furthermore, husband Dave and daughter Kate, who have been making daily two-hour trips to visit Margaret, are now at risk of being fined for overstaying their Egyptian visas after forgetting to renew them.
Aileen expressed her concerns about the financial implications, saying: “We’re worried because none of us are rich, people’s jobs aren’t secure. If we wipe out every bit of savings any of us have got, if one of us gets made redundant we won’t be able to make mortgage payments.”
No Limits Travel Insurance has been approached for comment.
The GoFundMe page can be found here.
