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Michele your a
seasoned traveler
started in November I went to cambodia by myself
and the offer part of the trip was to go to Canada
to see my family and my partner
after that we decided to go to india
and then travel around asia for a little bit. Bangkok, Malaysia, Singapora
then down to Indonesia for a surfing trip
the whole thing was about 10 months.
So Bali should have been
should have been the more relaxed part of the trip. That was the holiday part of the traveling.
What happened? We had been there 3 weeks. just island hopping
we were on Bali
and we had just checked into this small guest house. It was are first night there.
we were on the second floor with a balcony
we spent the night there and in the morning
i was on the balcony doing yoga, and my partner had gone surfing
he came back from surfing and was down stairs. I went and grabbed my camera
leaned over the railings take
a photo of him and
my ribs
touched the wood railing, whilst I as i leaned over to take the photo and then
whole railing just collapsed all around me. So I went
head first
into the ground over him. this was head first from about for that
10-12 ft up
yes, but luckly my arms were out straight, as i was holding the camera
so that was the first thing to hit the ground was my hands and then my face, and chest
were you knocked
out at this point? no but i was winded, i couldnt breath and i was just
writhing in a bit of a ball and then this
woman an australia, she is this women call Jill from Adelaide. She
ran over to help
So they wrapped my head up, help me get stable and then asked me to my fingers
and toes and all of that. and then this women's husband
ran and grabbed there jeep
they put me in the back of the jeep, because there is no hospitals around, no emergencies, no
nothing. went straight to the clinic
when you thought
i had broken my neck. yeah. what else was going through youur mind? your just
just survival mode
of course i was thinking that i wold not
see my family again that kind of stuff or that i would be in a wheelchair.
for the rest of my life. It was a bit
i really have to just maintain
some kind of strength because that's how i can get through this anderson and the
news that were still within the cooking i can get to that so can you tell us
about the injury faded first and foremost has broken me simply
broken wrists
like potato that had been kept my head in the face
and
lacerated stomach, lot of blood internal blood
an instant vannatter planned landing
covermore were contacted by micheles boyfriend
who told us that she had fallen off the balcony from a considerable
distance and was considerably sick and in a local hosipital
covermore contacted the hospital, the hospital told use that
she had internal bleeding and had fractured her 1st and 2nd vertebra
in her neck and that gave us alarm bells because if you fracture your 1st and 2nd
vertebra you
almost certainly dead
before you get to hospitals that we were
a little bit concerned that whether they made the correct diagnosis or not
were you concerned about medical treatment in bali
i was terrified when they had said that they want to operate on me
my partner lost it
he got on the phone with Evan from covermore like
and said they want to cut her open and stuff. and they said no.
you didnt want to be treated in Bali, and that was covermore's reaction as well, Yes
from covermore's initial assessment of Michele's conditon one thing was clear she couldnt stay at the
hospital she was at
so while we were looking at ongoing plans to evacuate her back to a first-world
location
we also had her transported to the
biggest hospital in bali she needed to go there anyway because that's where the airport is and
while she was in transit we were looking at the fastest way to get it back to
Australia
send out of the fastest way to get back her home was to use an
air ambulance company based in singapore
to pick up and fly her to Darwin
which is what we did
So covermore said to will, no one is going to touch her
she will not be cut open we are going to get you out
that must of be such a amazing vote of confidence
when that doctor came in uh... all the balinese guys stepped to the side
and this guy came in and
is not a full exam and gave me you know it's out of pain killers and
uh...
to settle the whole situation i could see Will sigh because it was in
hands we could trust because
we were terrified that something would come around and something did go along
and we didn't have
our insurance, doctors whatever looking after us then i would of had to have stuff done there
covermore had a couple of options for you. they had a singapora team
coming in
so you could have gone back and got medical care or come home to
australia
it was darwin all the way for me
it was is close, i told the doctor do whatever you need to do
i just just want to go home right now
went to the australian
you were evacuated out of Bali
you get to Darwin and your feeling a lot more relaxed
the care did not stop once you got to Darwin did it?
no, I stayed in Darwin for 7 days to be observed because they didnt want me
to fly until i had recovered and reabsorbed all the blood
which was in my stomach. Covermore then flew me back to my home town
and i had my surgery in hobart
that is that two weeks after the accident. do you have idea how much this whole
procedure would have cost you had you. if you did not have travel insurance.
air lift if the airlift alone was around 33,000-35,000
dollars
and that's just the airlift
and
that's something that
my family just i mean they would do it but maybe you just don't have that kind
of money sitting around. Would you like to say anything to the people at covermore who helped you
thanks a million
i
i feel sort of you know, i'm fit and healthy and i live
right now because of these people
at covermore. earned it