The family of a woman who suffered a serious brain injury while on holiday say they had to accept her return to the UK despite medical advice otherwise her travel insurance policy would be cancelled.

Jane Rubens was involved in an accident in the United States earlier this month and is in a coma.

Her family told the BBC that their insurance company, AXA Partners, initially told the family that Mrs. Rubens would need to be brought back on Monday, even though several doctors had advised against the move.

Following a social media screamingThe insurers hit back, saying: “The welfare of Ms Rubens and her family remains our priority.”

“We were already going through the worst time,” his 34-year-old daughter Kat, a lawyer, told the BBC. “Mom won’t survive this, we don’t know. And then we have to deal with all this.”

Mrs. Reubens was on vacation visiting family in Missouri when she was struck by an SUV in St. Louis on Nov. 1. He suffered severe brain injuries and multiple hemorrhages.

Since then she has been a patient at Saint Louis University Hospital, where she has had five different operations, including cranioplasty, where part of her skull was removed. The most recent surgery took place on Thursday.

Her family say that before the trip, the 73-year-old woman from Edinburgh had taken out a travel insurance policy with AXA Partners, which covered medical expenses of up to £15m ($19m).

On Friday the insurance company contacted her two children, Kat and Andrew, who were at her bedside, saying they wanted to send her back to the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh this week.

On Saturday, the family sent a letter to AXA Partners detailing the medical advice they had received not only from her doctors in Missouri, but also from NHS specialists to whom they had spoken, as well as from the brain injury charity Headway. All agreed that from a neurological standpoint, he needed several more weeks in the United States.

On Sunday, the family says, they woke up to an email from the insurers that said “Based on all medical information provided, it has been confirmed that your mother, Jane Rubens, died via air ambulance. Are fit for.” With immediate effect and proper medical maintenance. We have availability to proceed with the repatriation on 25/11/2024. If you do not accept our decisions and do not wish to return home, we will not provide any cover.

When Kat Rubens called the insurers later that day she said she was told:

• If repatriation is not accepted on Sunday the policy will be canceled on Monday
• They could not see the repatriation plan, which was not even shared with the medical team in Missouri
• He was not allowed to speak to the insurer’s medical team, underwriter or even the call center manager
• He was not given additional 48 hours to take the decision.
• Apart from filing a complaint, he had no way to challenge the decision.

“It’s a long way to go from St. Louis to Edinburgh,” said Cat. “But they couldn’t give any details – how many stays, what level of anesthesia he would get. Nothing.”

After the call, one of the doctors caring for Mrs. Rubens in St. Louis also called AXA Partners. He got nothing further and was not even given the name of a physician in Edinburgh to whom he could speak about his patient.

On Sunday evening, the family reluctantly wrote to the insurance company, “Under these circumstances you have given us no option but to agree to your repatriation plan. This has put us in an impossible position. You have asked us to agree to a repatriation plan.” Said to be the case in respect of which we have no proper details, not even the name of the doctor who welcomed him to the UK.

After this, Cat Rubens took the help of Ax to highlight her problem. “We were pushed into a corner, I didn’t want to do it, but I felt I had no choice but to post on X.”

After the social media post, Ms. Rubens said, AXA Partners called the family to apologize and say they would do nothing without the consent of both the family and the treating and receiving hospitals.

“We know repatriation has to happen – that’s what we want for mom,” Kat said.

“But this should be based on neurological opinion and not just on whether he is fit to fly from an aviation point of view. We weren’t being unreasonable – they just weren’t listening.”

In a statement, AXA Partners said it was “sorry for the distress caused to Ms Rubens and her family in filing the claim and we sympathize with their situation.” We have spoken to Ms Rubens’ family and will be in touch with them in the coming days to support them.

“Our medical team and the doctors treating Ms. Rubens will agree on the best course of action moving forward. We are considering all available options and the well-being of Ms. Rubens and her family remains our priority.”