B.C. court orders insurance firm to pay for man’s emergency surgery in U.S.
VICTORIA — An insurance company that refused to pay for a British Columbia man’s emergency heart surgery has been ordered by a B.C. Supreme Court judge in Victoria to cover the US$180,000 bill.
Paul Fletcher took the Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance Company to court when it refused to pay, claiming an exclusion clause applied because there was medical evidence that the man might be hospitalized while travelling.
Fletcher testified that his doctor told him his angina was stable and he was safe to take a trip to Mexico.
He booked a return flight to Canada when he began having chest pains, but when his symptoms worsened his plane made an emergency landing in Seattle where he underwent coronary artery bypass surgery.