Catherine Curtis was enjoying a long-awaited holiday in Bali that was set to be the family get-together that would top all reunions. But the trip to the island destination quickly unravelled into a painful and costly ordeal.
In 2023 Catherine and her family set out on a hike up Mount Batur — an active volcano in Bali — in search of a good vantage point to catch the sunrise.
“I was on holiday with 18 family members from Australia and the UK.
“Six of us hiked up the volcano, the rest of the group went via Jeep,” Catherine told 9Travel.
The IT consultant from New South Wales admits she was concerned about the rocky terrain the group encountered on the trail.
“On the way up, I remember worrying about the climb down. Everyone was slipping and sliding as it was very rubble-y and treacherous,” she said.
Catherine’s concerns were validated when she suddenly fell.
“I had a massive slip on the gravel and my leg went underneath me, and to my shock I heard it snap,” she explained.
“I was in a lot of pain and when we looked at my leg, you could see the bone sort of sticking out.”
The road to the bottom to find a hospital was a treacherous journey that took almost 2 hours on the back of a motorcycle.
“There were about 10 people helping all around the motorbike, stopping it from going too quickly,”
Once Catherine got medical attention from hospital staff it was confirmed her leg had broken in two places.
The only way to fix the 56-year-old’s injury was by undergoing expensive surgery.
“I got two long screws on the inside of my ankle and nine screws and a titanium plate on the right-hand side of my ankle,” she explained of the surgery.
“I’ve got some significant scars to show off now.”
Medical expenses, wheelchair hire and flight upgrades to get home accumulated into a whopping $24,323 bill.
Luckily for Catherine, she was covered by travel insurance which brought the medical costs down to just $400.
Catherine said she wouldn’t have been able to pay for the procedure if she wasn’t covered by insurance.
“I would have had to borrow money and go into debt and so on to get myself through it. It was a real comfort knowing that I had travel insurance.”