British tourist Alan Kirby, 67, died from septic shock and racked up a massive £14,000 hospital bill following a mistake with his health insurance, his family has said
A British tourist has died in Athens after he suffered from a mystery pain in his side during dinnertime.
Alan Kirby, 67, suffered septic shock and was on a ventilator in the Greek capital. He died on Monday, his family confirmed. Alan had initially thought the pain in his side at dinner was from throwing his stepdaughter’s children around in the sea in Zante.
When he woke up breathless he sough out medical advice and doctors advised he return to the UK for a biopsy on his mass in his lung, which they were concerned could be cancer. Before they could return home, Alan’s health deteriorated and he was put on a ventilator – prohibiting him from taking a commercial flight back to he UK and he was airlifted to a private hospital in Athens.
His devastated family had been raising money to cover the ambulance flight home, and speaking out to make others aware of holiday insurance errors. But in a post on his GoFundMe site, his step daughter LIza Whitemore, 40, posted: “We would like to thank all your support and donations over the last eight weeks.
“It comes with great sadness that Alan gained his wings in the night in Athens we will be heading out to Athens to have a cremation.” Hospital officials called his insurance company who disclosed Alan was aware of the mass, something British doctors said was a fatty tissue and told him not to worry about it.
This made it a pre-existing medical condition, which he had not declared to insurers, invalidating his cover and landing the family with a £14,000 bill. He was left on a ventilator in a hospital covered by his Global Health Insurance Card, and was too unwell to fly home on a conventional flight, but is without insurance to cover a £45,000 private medical flight home.
He could not fly to the UK because it was too long and he needed to remain on the ventilator. Liza believed he had a chest infection and needed antibiotics.
She added: “But the doctor, who must have had the clinic’s test results, said, ‘antibiotics won’t cure cancer’. Everyone was petrified, nobody knew what was going on.
“After five hours, they told my mum she needed to go back to England for a biopsy, because they couldn’t tell from the X-ray if Alan had cancer.”
Alan’s family had raised £9,500 in hopes of being able to fly him back to the UK, but he sadly did not reach the target goal before he died. The money raised through the appeal will now go towards his cremation.