Why You Need Medical Evacuation Insurance

James 'Kim' Martin, 56, from Baysville, Ontario, is one of Canada's most experienced cave divers, but it didn't stop him getting into difficulty on the 330-foot dive to the wreck of the Lusitania, off the coast of Ireland.

It was August 8, 2019, and he suffered a massive decompression injury. He was airlifted to a hyperbaric chamber in Galway 120 miles from the dive site, and several weeks later, he was still on life support. He'd sustained a serious spinal cord injury.

Defying all odds, he survived, but was still paralyzed with the spinal cord injury. His fiancée, Kirstin Chadwick, wanted to get him home. Repatriation and the medical treatment he received cost around $90,000, and Martin's insurance was inadequate. A GoFundMe appeal was set up to raise the money. By the beginning of October the target sum was reached, but the road to recovery has only just started.

This leads to the question, how many of us risk dive travel without insurance for medical evacuation? Martin was lucky in that he received medical attention in a First World country. Things might have been different if his diving accident had occurred somewhere like PNG or in Micronesia. Without medical evacuation insurance, you might never get home.