Dream vacation lands Washington veteran in an overseas hospital with bills mounting
What started as a seemingly routine cold for a Pasco man on a trip to the United Kingdom has turned into a health and financial nightmare.
Terry Brain, 75, has been fighting for his life 6,000 miles from home with his medical insurance benefits exhausted.
He was diagnosed with a serious and life-threatening pneumonia infection.
He was born in England but had not returned to see extended family and sightsee in almost 20 years until this fall when three generations of his family made the trip.
It was a dream vacation for Terry and his family, other than the cold they picked up on the way over.
The rest of the family — his wife, Ann; his son, Trevor Brain; and Trevor’s wife, Laura Kostad, and their young daughter — quickly shook it off.
But on Oct. 10, three days before they were due to fly back to Washington state, Terry’s symptoms became so worrisome that they took him to an emergency department in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh in Scotland to be evaluated.
He remains there now and may not be healthy enough to fly home for as long as a couple of weeks.
His health has generally been good.
He and his wife are both retired from the Pasco U.S. Post Office.
He likes to ride his pedal bike along the Tri-Cities Sacagawea Heritage and Waterfront Trails, hunt for game, search for antlers, take wildlife photos and walk down to Sneakers Irish Pub in Pasco to play Bingo with the pals he’s known since gradeschool.
But his medical history also includes a life-threatening bout of pneumonia 19 years ago and the wounds that earned him two Purple Hearts as a member of the First Cavalry in the Vietnam War.
The first medal was awarded after he was shot in the head, with the rim of his helmet narrowly deflecting the bullet, according to a GoFundMe started by his family.
The second medal came after a mortar round struck a bunker near him. Shrapnel tore through his abdomen.
He lost his left kidney and came back to the United States with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Now he speaks at schools about his experiences and is an advocate and support person for other veterans.
Pasco couple had travel insurance
Terry and his wife purchased basic travel insurance for their vacation.
Terry left the United Kingdom as a toddler and is a naturalized citizen of the United States, ineligible for free care in the UK.
But the Brains found that his $20,000 of travel insurance coverage was quickly exhausted by his medical expenses in Scotland.
He spent an initial week being treated in the intensive care unit and had surgery to drain fluid that had accumulated on his right lung.
Among the issues he has been facing was the strain that the infection was placing on his remaining kidney. He spent several days on dialysis.
Most of his health care is through the Veterans Administration because he is considered 100% veteran disabled, rather than under Medicare coverage.
But he did not know that he could have filled out a VA foreign medical coverage form before he left the county.
He still may be eligible for Veterans Administration medical coverage while outside U.S. borders, but only for issues directly related to his service in Vietnam.
A decision on whether any of his care in Scotland is covered by the VA is not expected for 45 days.
In the meantime, the family is paying tens of thousands of dollars up front for his care.
“In other words, we are on our own,” his family said in the GoFundMe. “We need help. All funds contributed will go directly toward paying down Terry’s mounting medical bills and all the rest to come.”
On Wednesday, his daughter-in-law posted an update on social media, saying he was “doing SO much better.”
Trevor, who had stayed in Scotland with his parents, returned to the Tri-Cities to join his wife and child on Friday as Terry improved.
But Terry has had what his son on Saturday called a minor setback.
Fluid has collected around Terry’s heart, possibly because he had been overdoing his assigned exercises in his eagerness to improve enough to fly home, and the fluid needed to be drained.
The family has set a goal of raising $75,000 for his care.
The GoFundMe is at bit.ly/TerryBrainMedical.
