The following is an e-mail I just sent off to DAN leadership by way of thanks and an endorsement. It also explains why my feet have been dry for almost a year...
Good afternoon,
As you may remember we met during the Sea Rovers show in Danvers, MA during March of this year. We spoke extensively of my and my wifes unique use of your insurance benefit.
I would like to offer you the following endorsement and praise that you may use as you see fit, I only ask that we be notified of where and when it may be published so that we may obtain copies!
Dear DAN,
In July of 2012 my wife, my sister and brother in law, and I went for an extended motorcycle tour of Nova Scotia from our homes in New England. This was just another of a regular annual adventure that we took every year. We have ridden as far south as the mountains of Georgia, Kentucky, many rides on the Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline drive (including earlier in 2012), and as far west as Wisconsin and the Great Lakes via Ontario CA. These trips have never been about my other passion, SCUBA diving, but have been an important part of our lives for years.
As part of our trip in 2012 we were to ride the Cabot Trail on the northern Nova Scotian coast, an absolutely beautiful ride we have done before. On this particular trip, however, our adventure would turn into one like we have never experienced before and hope top never again.
It was a warm and sunny 4th of July morning as we headed up the Cabot Trail toward the coast and rounded the last bend before coming up on the ocean proper. Between the two large touring bikes I was riding lead, enjoying the scenery while riding the speed limit and trying to keep safe.
Safe was not in the cards.
Apparently I ran across a patch of spilled antifreeze in the curve and my front wheel lost traction. After a couple of seconds of wrestling the bike for control we ran off the road and into a drainage ditch straight into a rock retaining wall at 50mph! My wife was thrown over me and clear back up to the roadway while I rode the bike into the wall and wound up under it after crushing the cockpit with my midsection. She broke her pelvis in two places and I suffered multiple fractures including a complete open book fracture of the pelvis, 3 ribs which punctured and collapsed my right lung, and my left arm. We were a mess.
Two Life Flights later we were in the QEII Medical Center in Halifax Nova Scotia. We had undergone surgery to add a couple pounds each of stainless steel ballast in the form of plates and screws. While my wife recovered from her surgery normally I was in a semi-comatose state for over nine days. It took us 3+ months before we were even allowed to stand of our feet again!
But wait, what in the WORLD does this have to do with DAN and SCUBA? Well, nothing at all to do with SCUBA but everything to do with DAN.
When I awoke from my coma and was eventually brought from the ICU to the post-surgical ward with my wife I found my family and the hospital social worker driving themselves crazy tryiung to figure out how to get either Blue Cross or my motorcycle insurance to pay to take us back to the states to convalesce in a proper rehab near home. I pretty much told everyone to stop what they were doing, find my wallet, and take out the white card with DAN in big red letters, call the number on it and tell them our story.
The social worker came back to my room nearly in a state of shock! She wanted to know how I ever got such great coverage!! According to her DAN just wanted to know how soon we could be ready to travel and to have corroborating paperwork sent to them. Less than a week later I got a phone call from a very nice gentleman who asked if we could be ready to go the next morning I was incredulous but he explained that he was with DAN and they would be there by 11am the next day. Actually the flight was delayed and they didnt show up until 1:00pm!
After some preparation time and minimal paperwork we were taken overland by ambulance to the Halifax airport where we were put aboard a modified Gulfstream 3 Air Ambulance and flown to Manchester NH. From there the customs agent was waiting on the tarmac to clear us and we were once again loaded aboard ambulances for the drive to Salem, NH where the rehab was located. We shook hands and said our thank yous all around and that was it we were home at a cost to DAN of over $23,000. We saw no bills. No invoices. No hoops of fire. One phone call and help was there for something that neither BCBS or our vehicle insurance was prepared to deal with. It was the only part of our entire nightmare that went exactly as advertised and was nothing but helpful to us.
So, please DAN, be sure all of your members know that these benefits exist! I am always amazed at the number of people that think you need to be hurt on or in the water to take advantage of DAN insurance but it is SO much more than that! Please encourage everyone to read and understand all of the amazing benefits available to them through your fine organization, it is really the least expensive insurance they can buy when you calculate the potential cost of the benefits provided.
My wife, Laurie, and I owe you our eternal thanks for the part you played in our recovery. You can count on us to be members for the rest of our lives, in fact I purchased DAN insurance as a wedding gift for my nephew Rick (a newly minted diver) and his wife at the Sea Rovers show where we met. I am sure to promote DAN and tell our story to any diver that I meet. If are a diver and arent a member you are adding an unnecessary risk to your life, especially if you travel!
Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts,
Ron and Laurie Russell
Londonderry, NH 03053
PS. Its been less than a year and I am already back in the water. Two of the attached photos are of me from my first test dive that I made in November, just 6 weeks after being allowed out of the wheel chair. (My doctor endorsed my return to diving post pneumothorax). I now have 5 dives under my belt since allowing the winter to complete the recovery of my lung and look forward to the day (very soon) when I have the physical strength back to don my doubles again!
Good afternoon,
As you may remember we met during the Sea Rovers show in Danvers, MA during March of this year. We spoke extensively of my and my wifes unique use of your insurance benefit.
I would like to offer you the following endorsement and praise that you may use as you see fit, I only ask that we be notified of where and when it may be published so that we may obtain copies!
Dear DAN,
In July of 2012 my wife, my sister and brother in law, and I went for an extended motorcycle tour of Nova Scotia from our homes in New England. This was just another of a regular annual adventure that we took every year. We have ridden as far south as the mountains of Georgia, Kentucky, many rides on the Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline drive (including earlier in 2012), and as far west as Wisconsin and the Great Lakes via Ontario CA. These trips have never been about my other passion, SCUBA diving, but have been an important part of our lives for years.
As part of our trip in 2012 we were to ride the Cabot Trail on the northern Nova Scotian coast, an absolutely beautiful ride we have done before. On this particular trip, however, our adventure would turn into one like we have never experienced before and hope top never again.
It was a warm and sunny 4th of July morning as we headed up the Cabot Trail toward the coast and rounded the last bend before coming up on the ocean proper. Between the two large touring bikes I was riding lead, enjoying the scenery while riding the speed limit and trying to keep safe.
Safe was not in the cards.
Apparently I ran across a patch of spilled antifreeze in the curve and my front wheel lost traction. After a couple of seconds of wrestling the bike for control we ran off the road and into a drainage ditch straight into a rock retaining wall at 50mph! My wife was thrown over me and clear back up to the roadway while I rode the bike into the wall and wound up under it after crushing the cockpit with my midsection. She broke her pelvis in two places and I suffered multiple fractures including a complete open book fracture of the pelvis, 3 ribs which punctured and collapsed my right lung, and my left arm. We were a mess.
Two Life Flights later we were in the QEII Medical Center in Halifax Nova Scotia. We had undergone surgery to add a couple pounds each of stainless steel ballast in the form of plates and screws. While my wife recovered from her surgery normally I was in a semi-comatose state for over nine days. It took us 3+ months before we were even allowed to stand of our feet again!
But wait, what in the WORLD does this have to do with DAN and SCUBA? Well, nothing at all to do with SCUBA but everything to do with DAN.
When I awoke from my coma and was eventually brought from the ICU to the post-surgical ward with my wife I found my family and the hospital social worker driving themselves crazy tryiung to figure out how to get either Blue Cross or my motorcycle insurance to pay to take us back to the states to convalesce in a proper rehab near home. I pretty much told everyone to stop what they were doing, find my wallet, and take out the white card with DAN in big red letters, call the number on it and tell them our story.
The social worker came back to my room nearly in a state of shock! She wanted to know how I ever got such great coverage!! According to her DAN just wanted to know how soon we could be ready to travel and to have corroborating paperwork sent to them. Less than a week later I got a phone call from a very nice gentleman who asked if we could be ready to go the next morning I was incredulous but he explained that he was with DAN and they would be there by 11am the next day. Actually the flight was delayed and they didnt show up until 1:00pm!
After some preparation time and minimal paperwork we were taken overland by ambulance to the Halifax airport where we were put aboard a modified Gulfstream 3 Air Ambulance and flown to Manchester NH. From there the customs agent was waiting on the tarmac to clear us and we were once again loaded aboard ambulances for the drive to Salem, NH where the rehab was located. We shook hands and said our thank yous all around and that was it we were home at a cost to DAN of over $23,000. We saw no bills. No invoices. No hoops of fire. One phone call and help was there for something that neither BCBS or our vehicle insurance was prepared to deal with. It was the only part of our entire nightmare that went exactly as advertised and was nothing but helpful to us.
So, please DAN, be sure all of your members know that these benefits exist! I am always amazed at the number of people that think you need to be hurt on or in the water to take advantage of DAN insurance but it is SO much more than that! Please encourage everyone to read and understand all of the amazing benefits available to them through your fine organization, it is really the least expensive insurance they can buy when you calculate the potential cost of the benefits provided.
My wife, Laurie, and I owe you our eternal thanks for the part you played in our recovery. You can count on us to be members for the rest of our lives, in fact I purchased DAN insurance as a wedding gift for my nephew Rick (a newly minted diver) and his wife at the Sea Rovers show where we met. I am sure to promote DAN and tell our story to any diver that I meet. If are a diver and arent a member you are adding an unnecessary risk to your life, especially if you travel!
Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts,
Ron and Laurie Russell
Londonderry, NH 03053
PS. Its been less than a year and I am already back in the water. Two of the attached photos are of me from my first test dive that I made in November, just 6 weeks after being allowed out of the wheel chair. (My doctor endorsed my return to diving post pneumothorax). I now have 5 dives under my belt since allowing the winter to complete the recovery of my lung and look forward to the day (very soon) when I have the physical strength back to don my doubles again!
