1. I don’t often tweet about my personal life, but on 1st November, my mum Jane was hit by a large vehicle as a pedestrian in St. Louis, USA. She suffered a severe brain injury & remains in a coma in hospital.
Here's Jane & me in happier times.
Cat Rubens
3,092 posts
Cat Rubens
@catrubens
Senior Associate Solicitor in the Human Rights department @ Leigh Day. Tweeting in a personal capacity. 👊⛰🌍
- Replying to @catrubens2. This thread is aimed squarely at my mum’s travel insurer, AXA, and their failure to take account of my mum’s best interests when considering repatriating her home to the UK. @AXA @axainsurance @AXAUK
- Replying to @catrubens25. I'd be grateful if my followers / contacts in the areas of journalism, capacity law and disability rights could please re-tweet. [P.s if you've been in contact with me professionally over the past few weeks, this is the reason for my out of office. Thanks ❤️]
- Replying to @catrubens5. This already hellish situation has been made immeasurably worse by the approach taken by @AXA, including refusing to take account of medical advice from neurologists that it is not in Jane’s best interests to fly at this stage of her injury.
- Replying to @catrubens24. The purpose of this thread? To draw attention to the impossible position we have been put in, when acting on behalf of our mum who lacks capacity. Our key concern is that AXA have not done their due diligence & are not considering the neurological advice provided to them.
- Replying to @catrubens3. My mum has had multiple brain surgeries in the past few weeks including a craniectomy to remove a piece of her skull. She now lacks capacity in all domains. I have power of attorney for her registered with @OPGScotland. I need to make decisions for her in her best interests.
- Replying to @catrubens4. Here’s some recent photos of Jane (with her face covered). As you can imagine, the past few weeks have been hell for me and my family. We are out in America, trying our best to support her.
- Replying to @catrubens10. AXA accepted that they do not have a neurology expert in their own medical team. They do not feel the need to consult with neurology specialists in the treating USA hospital, nor the Scottish hospital. We are talking about repatriating a severe brain injury patient here.
- Replying to @catrubens6. We received advice from multiple neurology experts, including the neurosurgeon in the USA, that it would not be in her long-term best interests to fly her back to the UK at this acute stage of her injury. I provided this in writing to @AXA.
- Replying to @catrubens8. AXA would not even allow us 24 hours for this decision. We told them we were due to speak to neurology in the USA on Monday 25 Nov about the repatriation timeline and risks re long term recovery. We asked for more time to give our decision. AXA said no.
- Replying to @catrubens7. Despite this, AXA wrote to us this morning (24 Nov) to state that we had to agree to repatriate Jane this coming Wednesday 27 Nov or they would pull the cover for her medical expenses in the USA. They said we had to give them our agreement to repatriation by this afternoon.
- Replying to @catrubens9. We had already spoken to the potential receiving hospital in Scotland. They confirmed to us that they had not received any of Jane’s scans or medical records. There has been zero contact between the treating hospital in the USA and the Scottish hospital.
- Replying to @catrubens17. We have been shown zero empathy, customer care or reasonableness from AXA at one of the darkest times of our lives.
- Here's an update below from when I was on @GMB this morning. Thanks so much to everyone who has supported and reached out, as well as the well wishes towards Jane. She wouldn't believe it. I am so grateful to everyone who has shared. ❤️The family of a 73-year-old British woman in a coma in the U.S. say they were given a terrifying ultimatum by the holiday insurer covering her medical expenses. Jane Rubens was hit by an SUV in St Louis and has since undergone multiple operations on her brain. Jane's daughter
00:00
