Cost of a Broken Ankle in St Bart’s

So we know you are all wondering what is the cost of a broken ankle in St Bart’s? Yes, we purchased private medical insurance…. more on that later.

First off were the miscellaneous pharmacy items we bought prior to going to the Hospital. You know the normal stuff for a sprained body part; ice pack, tensor wrap, etc.

Once at the Hospital the Doctors fees were very reasonable. The Doctor charged about 25 euro for examniation, assessment and treatment. Then there were the x-ray costs which he waived since there were no x-ray staff on duty the day we showed up. he apologized to Brenda a couple times and said there would be no charge since he would try to take an x-ray but could not guarantee the results or diagnosis. However and trust me on this you didn’t need to be a Radiologist to see the broken ankle bone; I believe it is called the malleole! Anyway, once the Doctor set the cast, provided a bunch of paperwork, written prescriptions, follow up x-ray schedule, etc. the final Hospital charges were just over 52 euro.

After leaving the Hospital we headed to one of three pharmacies on the island to pickup the Lovenox, Paracematol and Crutches. That bill was a bit of a shock as it was about 270 euro.

The Doctor also prescribed a daily vist by a local Infimier (Nurse) to administer the Lovenox and check on Brenda. This is definitely different; the Hospital gives you a list of Nurses and you call whoever you want. So, we tried a couple and as luck would have it our Villa phone wasn’t working or was restricted, so we ended up calling St Barth’s Properties (our villa rental company) and they contacted a Nurse to come to the Villa Sea Horse. A time was arranged for her to come to the Villa and she didn’t show up so we called the villa company gain and she had gone to another Villa Sea Horse on the island. Remember this is St Bart’s and it’s not like there are well identified streets, villa addresses, etc; things we take for granted in Canada.

Once she arrived she gave Brenda the shot checked her ankle and made a schedule for regular daily visit. The Nurse is paid for mileage and cost of administering the shot. Mileage is about 25 euro perday and the shot is a little over 5 euro/day for a total of about 30 euro/day. that doesn’t include Saturday and Sunday when there is an additional charge for the weekend of somewhere between 8 – 10 euro.

Then there is the Blood work. The Nurse took a blood sample on day #2 and delivers it to the Laboratory. The lab e-mails you directly with the results. Another blood test will be taken one week after the first to check the platelets for coagulation. The total for the 2 blood test with Lab work, Nurse fee, delivery to Lab, etc. will be about 130 euro.

So, what kind of total cost are we getting to??????

Well, roughly if everything remains stable we should be somewhere around 800 euro. Now this is kind of eerie but just before we left we got an additional 800 euro from the bank just in case we needed it. We never dreamed we would be spending it this way. By the way 1 euro at the bank will cost you about $1.40 Canadian currency.

One final note we purchased our travel medical(One World Travel)  through BCAA. Overall the plan is quite comprehensive, we paid for additional coverages, etc. However like most insurance companies the first focus is about not spending any additional dollars…… we’ve come to expect that. However, it would have been nice sometime during one of the half dozen calls I’ve made to them for one of their agents to say “So, how is Brenda doing? Is she resting comfortably?” Enough said!