Mike McDonald was vacationing in the Dominican Republic last month, and it was going to be a trip to remember: He had planned to propose to his girlfriend on the tropical island and then return to Canada to get married.

Instead, it was a tragedy the families will never forget. According to an article in The Canadian Press, McDonald suffered a traumatic head injury after slipping on the granite by a hotel pool, and was stabilized in a local Dominican hospital while his hotel and insurance company argued over who would pay his medical bills. He was refused a medical evacuation, and consequently died in the Caribbean nation.

In cases like these, insurance companies make decisions on whether to transport a policy-holder based on financial considerations. Global Rescue works very differently.  As a Global Rescue member, if you require hospitalization while more than 160 miles from home, we will transport you to the hospital of your choice and often will deploy our medical staff to your bedside to coordinate your treatment.   

Global Rescue makes medical decisions based on the member’s best interest. That distinction cannot be overstated, and often it is the difference between life and death. 

Left to take care of the young man on their own, McDonald’s family members had to turn to Facebook to raise the $10,000 needed to pay his hospital bill, and were financially constrained to ask Air Canada for a free ticket to send his mother to his bedside. In the end, the 33-year-old died in the Caribbean hospital after the insurance company refused to pay for a medical evacuation: 

The family is now saying no one else should have to go through what they went through.

“Whether it was the hospital or the hotel or the insurance company, it shouldn’t have happened this way,” said Mitch McDonald, Mike’s uncle. “It shouldn’t have to be the family that deals with this. When you buy insurance you think you would be insured.”

He was hospitalized at the best hospital in the country, Mike Starko, executive director with Travel Underwriters, said. But neither the hotel nor the insurance company agreed to pay for his hospital expenses and flight home.