With her health in decline, 76-year-old Patricia Bunting was determined to have one final foreign holiday with her grandson William, who is 23 and has autism.
‘She wanted to see him happy and to make memories,’ says Emma Bunting, Patricia’s daughter. ‘She knew it would be her last holiday abroad and she saved up for nearly three years for it.’
Mrs Bunting, a former cleaner and factory worker, receives the state pension and, since her bus driver husband Joseph died of a heart attack in 1993, a small widow’s pension.
The pair were joined on their three-week trip to Walt Disney World in Florida by her unemployed sons Paul, 40, (Emma’s twin brother) and David, 42, who both live with their mum in Wigan, Greater Manchester.
‘It was her 21st trip to the US since she first went with my dad in the late 1980s,’ adds her daughter Emma, a cleaning supervisor, who remained at home with her younger son Joseph, ten.
‘She loves it there – the people, the food, the weather. She always took out travel insurance and never had to use it.
In early 2022, however, she was diagnosed with the lung condition chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and had started using inhalers to help her breathe. November’s holiday was her first trip to the US since then.
‘She also uses a walker or a wheelchair to help her,’ adds her daughter. ‘She has artrial fibrillation, too, a heart condition that causes an irregular heart rate.’
The grandmother had looked into getting coverage for her trip, but told Emma she had been quoted around £3,000. ‘I said, maybe you shouldn’t go, but Mum said: ‘I’ll be ok.’
Fateful words. For what befell Patricia is by turns a story that will evoke sympathy from some – while also offering a salutary lesson about the recklessness of going abroad without insurance, especially to America, when suffering from serious chronic illness.
Five days before her scheduled flight home, on November 23, Patricia passed out in her hotel bathroom and was rushed to Orlando Health Dr. P. Phillips Hospital.
She spent five days in intensive care with Covid, before contracting pneumonia. She also suffered a gastrointestinal bleed and blood clots in her legs.
In a critical condition and too ill to leave hospital, her medical bills become ever more insurmountable by the day. The family are unaware of how much they owe but, after more than three weeks in hospital, it is likely to run into the tens of thousands of pounds.
A 2021 estimate put the average per-day hospital cost in the US at $2,883 (£2,269). That would put Mrs Bunting’s at nearly £57,000 already – and more when her spell in intensive care is factored in.
On Tuesday a spokesman for Orlando Health Dr. P. Phillips Hospital described Mrs Bunting’s condition as ‘serious’.
In a statement, the hospital added: ‘Although we can’t comment on specific patient cases, Orlando Health has a longstanding generous financial assistance program for patients who have limited or no resources to pay for medically necessary services rendered at an Orlando Health facility.
‘Orlando is a popular international tourist destination and we encourage all visitors to consider purchasing travel insurance for unexpected, emergency medical expenses.’
The UK Foreign Office advises that ‘If you do not have appropriate insurance before you travel, you could be liable for emergency expenses, including medical treatment, which may cost thousands of pounds.’
One example it lists is ‘stomach bug or infection treated in a hospital in the USA and possibly medical evacuation/repatriation’ which it estimates could cost you ‘£150,000+’ without travel insurance.
Relatives are trying to get Patricia back to England so she can be cared for by the NHS. In the meantime their grandmother faces spending a lonely Christmas in a hospital bed on the other side of the Atlantic.
The family has launched a crowdfunding appeal on GoFundMe which so far has raised more than £31,000 of a £50,000 target.
They had hoped it would allow them to pay for a specialised air ambulance with a bed and oxygen to fly Patricia home under medical supervision and help pay a little of her hospital bill, too.
‘She’s nowhere near stable enough to be able to get a commercial flight home, which would be much cheaper.’ says Emma.
But since launching the appeal, the family say they have discovered that the cost of a medically assisted flight may be as much as £130,000. And that is on top of the huge cost of her hospital stay.
Emma flew out to be by her mother’s bedside as soon as she could, arriving shortly after her brothers and son returned home at the end of November. She has been staying in $50 (£39) a night family accommodation at the hospital two floors below where her mother is being treated.
Emma told the Mail: ‘I’m only getting about three hours sleep a night, but it’s good because I’m nearby if the nurses ring, and it’s cheaper than a hotel.
‘Mum is a tough cookie, but she’s not out of the woods. She’s on continuous oxygen, and on morphine for pain, as well as antibiotics. She’s had two bouts of pneumonia. She sleeps a lot and can’t really talk beyond muttering a few words. She’s only able to eat protein shakes and broths.
‘She’s a Catholic and a priest has given her a prayer shawl and some rosary beads which have been a great comfort to her.
But nothing can keep the loneliness at bay. ‘She’s so far away from family it’s killing her. She can’t see her sister and her grandchildren. There’s Facetime but it lacks the human element.
‘She wants to be back for Christmas but I think I’m going to be spending it with her here in the US.’
While Emma admits her mum might have been more cautious about travelling, she understands her decision: ‘People have said she was daft not to get insurance, but she didn’t know she was going to get ill, did she?
And she’s full of praise for all those who have donated money to get her mum home: ‘There are lovely people who’ve got a heart and given to the fundraiser even though they don’t know her. We’re a working class family, we’re not millionaires. How else are we supposed to pay for all this?’
More than 1,200 donations have so far been made to the family’s appeal, ranging from £5 to £2,000.
Emma said she has, unfortunately, also received some unpleasant messages since launching the appeal, with some ‘keyboard warriors’ accusing her of exaggerating her mother’s condition and the medical costs – and even of masterminding a money-making scam.
‘I don’t justify them with an answer. I have a good cry sometimes but don’t let my mother see me upset,’ she said.
Patricia’s sister Linda Bennett, 70, a former nursing assistant who also lives in Wigan, said on Tuesday that other relatives had chipped in to help pay for the cost of Paul, David and William’s holidays but that Patricia had insisted on paying for hers herself.
‘She’s always been a frugal person and has a lot of pride. She’s never claimed benefits,’ says Linda. ‘She saved up for the holiday from her pensions – about £1,400 for flights and accommodation. She owns her semi-detached house but it needs a lot of repairs.’
Asked how much she’d like to have her sister home from Christmas, Linda replied: ‘One million per cent.’
Meanwhile, back in the US, Emma has a clear message for anyone thinking of risking a foreign holiday without travel insurance.
‘Don’t do it. It’s not worth it. Don’t look at it as an unnecessary expense.’
She added: ‘We can’t fault the medical care that Mum has received here – but it is very, very expensive. I haven’t even asked what the medical bill at the hospital is so far, but it’ll be tens of thousands of dollars.’
And yes – Emma says she did make sure to take out travel insurance herself when she jetted out to be at her mother’s bedside.
But, as her mum languishes in her hospital bed in Florida– a country the grandmother used to call her ‘happy place’ – Emma is counting on the kindness of strangers to reunite her family this Christmas.