Last summer, my sister got a major concussion from a sea-doo accident (she was thrown off someone's sea-doo at a high speed). This was her 5th or 6th concussion, and an extremely severe one. She was ridden with extremely painful headaches all day every day, and wasn't allowed to watch TV, look at a screen or even read for more than 15 minutes per day. Needless to say she could no longer go into work.
Now my sister has a very good job, she works for the government and earns well above the median income in Canada. Being in the government, she also receives a very comprehensive benefits package. At the time of her accident, she had in the area of $5000 saved up as an emergency fund.
Now over time it became clear that her symptoms were not improving very quickly at all. At this point she had gone on LTD from work and was awaiting approval from her insurance to begin paying her while she remained on LTD. In order to qualify, however, she was required to attend ALL doctor recommended therapies while they "Evaluated her case". That means over the course of 6 months, while continuing to pay her bills with 0 income, she was also expected to pay hundreds every week on therapy intended to help her get better. If she failed to attend doctor recommended therapy, she would be denied her benefits. Needless to say it did not take long for her savings to be completely depleted, her credit card maxed out. All the while she was battling with the insurance company over her claim, and mentally exhausted as a result, while also falling into pretty serious depression because she derives a lot of her self worth from her performance at work and doing a good job which she always did.
At the end of the day she required money from our parents in order to get by, to the tune of another $4k on top of the $5k she had saved prior to the accident and her credit card. She finally got approved for LTD and received her payout from the insurance company two weeks ago.
TLDR: Through no fault of her own, my sister who was doing all of the right things with a good job, good benefits and an emergency fund, was driven deep in the red because of a stubborn insurance company who essentially tried to bleed her out while they "assessed her claim".
Be careful out there and always try to have an emergency fund and a backup plan in case something unexpected happens.
EDIT: with regards to the concussions, I believe they occurred as followed: She had 2 concussions playing sports in high school, another from an accident her boyfriend got into when she was in the passenger seat (also in high school), another from falling on the ice while coaching a ringette team and I'm not sure about the other one.
Submitted April 25, 2017 at 01:35PM by Turnbills http://ift.tt/2oH6zaU
