UK grandmother who caught COVID stranded in Orlando hospital

The vacation was a last chance to make memories.Patricia Bunting, 76, knew her declining health would soon mean no more trips to the United States, her “happy place.” She uses three different inhalers to ease breathing difficulties caused by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. She relies on a walker to get around.But she had saved for two years to see her grandson enjoy Walt Disney World one more time. She made the 10-hour trip with him and two of her sons Oct. 31.Bunting had bought travel insurance on all of her 20 previous trips to America. This time, she couldn’t afford the $3,000 cost.On Nov. 23, five days before her scheduled flight home, she complained of exhaustion. One of her sons found her later passed out in the bathroom. She was rushed to Orlando Health Dr. P. Phillips Hospital.Bunting spent five days in intensive care with COVID-19 and, later, pneumonia. She refused intubation fearing that she would never wake up. After 17 days in the hospital, she remains in critical care. She is on oxygen and is heavily medicated, leaving her family fearing she may never return home.And with every day that passes, her medical bills go up.Her story illustrates how the “jaw-dropping” cost of health care in the United States can financially devastate tourists who do not buy insurance and experience medical emergencies. The average spending on health in the U.S. was $12,555 per person in 2022, more than $4,000 more than any other high-income nation, according to an analysis by Peterson Center on Healthcare and KFF.Bunting’s children want to fly her home where her treatment would be free under the country’s National Health Service. But she is too sick to undertake the long flight without medical care. She would need a bed, oxygen and medical assistance on the airplane, which would cost close to $30,000, according to an air ambulance provider contacted by the family.It’s far more than they can afford, said daughter Emma Bunting, who flew to Orlando on Saturday to be with her mother.“She’s scared of passing away in a U.S. hospital far from her family,” Emma Bunting said. “I want nothing more than to have mum home for Christmas so she’s surrounded by all the love of her family.”The matriarch of her family, Bunting lives in Wigan about 22 miles from Manchester. A widow since 1993, she has three sons, a daughter and two grandchildren. She has never relied on government help and lives on the pension she paid into during her working life and what she receives from her husband’s pension, her daughter said.The family has reached out for help to the U.K.’s Miami embassy but said that officials there had only asked how they were going to pay for their mother’s mounting medical bills. The embassy did not return a call from the Tampa Bay Times seeking comment.The hospital has helped the family with low-cost accommodation in a pavilion on the campus. “I feel anxious,” said Emma Bunting about the expense of treatment in the U.S. “I don’t know how much this will cost but I know she needs this care.”Websites that offer travel insurance for visitors to the United States warn visitors about the risk of medical emergencies.An operation to remove an appendix would cost $13,000 in the U.S., more than double that in Switzerland, the next most expensive, according to a 2022 analysis from the International Federation of Health Plans and the Health Care Cost Institute that compared international pricing for medical treatment across 11 countries.Emergencies like a heart attack that requires surgery could run to $200,000 according to data from travel insurance firm VisitorsCoverage .Patricia Bunting’s children have started a gofundme page to raise money to cover the cost of flying their mother home to the United Kingdom with specialized medical care.

UK grandmother who caught COVID stranded in Orlando hospital

MORE FOR YOU

ONLY AVAILABLE FOR SUBSCRIBERS