Traveler mishaps, maladies and mistakes can happen on any trip: personal, adventure, business, solo or family. They can occur close to home or 100 miles or more away from home. Here’s where a Global Rescue travel protection membership can help.

Not every call is a distress signal from the summit of Nanga Parbat or a request for evacuation from a coronavirus outbreak country.

Traveler mishaps, maladies and mistakes can happen on any trip: personal, adventure, business, solo or family. They can occur close to home or 100 miles or more away from home.

That’s why a travel protection services membership is a necessity. Global Rescue pioneered the concept of field rescue in 2004 to give travelers a better way to get help when they experience a medical or security emergency while traveling away from home.

“The unexpected can happen on any trip,” says Harding Bush, associate manager of operations at Global Rescue. “From ‘I lost my passport’ to ‘I have severe abdominal pain’, Global Rescue membership takes every situation into account and offers assistance at any point in a trip.”

Many people associate Global Rescue with rescue from remote or dangerous locations, but there’s much more to a travel protection services membership. Here’s how you can make every trip, domestic and abroad, a safer one.

[Related Reading: 10 Reasons You Need Travel Protection]

Lost Passport

Wallet stolen while overseas? Global Rescue can walk you through the process of police reports and embassy appointments to expedite the passport replacement process.

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Translation Services

You need to go to the hospital while you’re traveling abroad, but you don’t speak the language of your destination country. Members can call the Global Rescue operations center 24/7/365 for translation help in more than 190 languages. Our experts set up a conference call with the member and an interpreter or translator.

Legal Referrals

If you face challenges overseas that require legal support, Global Rescue could be your one call. Our operations experts have a list of legal representation in 160 countries and we can point you in the right direction for help.

Travel Planning

You’ve spent all this time researching the location of your next vacation. You know which hotel you want to stay in, which museums you want to visit, and what guided tours will be of interest to your family. But have you investigated the location’s safety issues or health risks?

Global Rescue has. On the web or via our app, members can access destination reports for more than 215 countries and principalities worldwide. A quick risk overview for Brazil, for example, covers security risks (crime levels and protests), weather risks (landslides and flash floods), and health risks, particularly with Amazonian travel. Drill a little deeper and you’ll find information on law enforcement standards, transportation options, entry and exit requirements, and recent events that might affect your vacation.

“Every member has different needs, but the information is universal:  proactive travel risk information and area assessments to keep people safe while traveling,” Bush said. 

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Travel Alerts

You’re on your trip and you’re not going to be watching or listening to the news. If you want to know what is happening, you can set up automatic alerts for events — customized for the locations that matter to you — that might impact travel.

On the Global Rescue app, go to destinations, find the country you are visiting, and click on the down arrow to set up an alert. You can also click on the region if you want alerts for nearby countries. Members also have access to Global Rescue’s award-winning Coronavirus Intelligence Center with daily updates on restrictions, bans and outbreaks.

[Related Reading: What Are Travel Alerts?]

Security Advisory Services and Extraction

How safe is an area for your family? Is it prone to natural disasters, civil unrest or terrorism?

Ask Global Rescue to review your travel plans and give advice about staying safe in that location. If the Global Rescue Operations Team thinks there might be any security or safety issues, they will let you know pre-trip — and be available during your trip in case the need arises for evacuation services for events like natural disasters, terror attacks and civil unrest when you are in danger.

Medical Advice

Members can call 24/7/365 with any medical question and be able to speak to a critical care paramedic on the first call. “Please call. We want you to call us before symptoms get worse,” says Matt Napiltonia, a senior operations manager at Global Rescue. “Many of the medical rescues happen because of a failure to call Global Rescue at first chance — not five days later.”

Joelle Halperin of New Jersey called Global Rescue from her hotel in Zimbabwe when she had a question on the malaria medication she was taking.

“I was pleased I could count on Global Rescue to answer a medical question,” said Halperin. “Global Rescue would be valuable in a crisis — but I hope to never have to call on them for that.”

Medical Evacuation to Home Hospital of Choice

If you do have to be hospitalized, we have the ability to transport our members back to their home hospital of choice. Global Rescue’s in-house staff can travel to your bedside to help improve your care and coordinate your transportation.

Field Rescue

Global Rescue pioneered the concept of Field Rescue in 2004 to help travelers when they experience a medical or security emergency while traveling away from home.

“There are many scenarios under the field rescue umbrella,” said Jeffrey Weinstein, operations supervisor at Global Rescue. “This could be someone trekking on a remote trail and starts to have heart attack symptoms or a climber in the high mountains with severe frostbite. Neither are accessible by standard emergency services and require specialty rescue services.”

A Field Rescue starts with a call to Global Rescue. The medical operations team provides immediate medical advice and works up the logistics to execute a Field Rescue based on geographic location, means of transport, local resources and the safest way to move the injured or ill individual.

A trip doesn’t have to mean 100 or more miles away. You could be traveling locally. And if you are ill and injured and unable to get to help on your own, Global Rescue’s Local Field Rescue will be by your side.