I am in Thailand and I need to get home to College Station. I have several crushed vertebrae and am in tremendous pain. Does anyone have any experience with an international medical flight company that you could recommend? Thank you so much.

First call I'd make would be to your medical insurance company and see what they cover. A medical evac from Thailand is going to be very expensive. Also, they usually just evac you to the nearest accredited hospital that can treat you until you're stabilized enough to fly commercial back home.

Also worth checking with your credit card company, I think some include travel insurance that might help.

Yikes. No travel insurance for the trip? They usually add medical transportation. Other than that start with your medical insurance and whichever credit card company you used to book it.

Are you getting treatment there? There are some excellent hospitals in Thailand (e.g. Bumrungrad International Hospital in BKK). You should be able to get treated there and get reimbursed by your insurance.

Might call the US embassy. They might deal with this on a regular basis or have some contacts.

I know some people purchase insurance through MedJet. I would start there. Obviously it is too late for medical insurance, but I bet they can provide guidance.https://medjetassist.com/

I do hope you are okay.

We faced a dangerous medical situation in Hungary a few years back. The embassy was able to provide me with all the info & guidance I needed and answer questions I had not even thought of. They gave me a thorough education of the healthcare system there and helped me weigh all our options. Staying in the Budapest hospital & homebound in an AirBnB for a few extra weeks until my wife was capable of flying commercially turned out to be a better option for us than medical evacuation back to the states, but every situation is different.

I won't derail the thread with details, but trust me when I say the embassy was a Godsend. Call them immediately. They will help you.

Sometimes a business class ticket is the only semi affordable way home if you are stable enough. Always get travel medical insurance and Medjet assist when traveling. Cheap insurance.

Embassy is your best option as mentioned above.

Double, sent up some prayers for you. When appropriate, please update this thread to confirm you are OK.

Thank you all for your suggestions. After a MRI, the specialist here (I am in Krabi) says I need surgery. So I have secured a medical transport flight home. I'll stay here in the hospital until my flight. I have to say, the Thai nurses, doctors and other staff have all been so kind and caring. This really is a wonderful place.

So, story time?

My guess is either car wreck or fall.

I've crushed a vertebra. It ain't pleasant. A flight home from Thailand is going to suuuuuuuuuck.

When you recover, you'll have to tell us about the flight. How much did it cost? What was the setup on the flight (layout of the plane, personnel, number of passengers, etc.) ? What was the flight itinerary?

Divers Alert Network (DAN) used to be the best for this type of (pre-injury) coverage back in the day. Not sure anymore, but substantially cheaper than anything else at the time.

oof hope OP is ok

OP, do you happen to have an AMEX Platinum card?

if so check that out. i recall they provide overseas medical support to cardholders

I'm sure the medical flight will have him nice and drugged up. My best flight ever was from Ramstein AF Base Germany to Bethesda MD. Hit me with drugs on a litter on the runway and I woke up when we were landing.

OP, how are you doing? Did everything go well on the flight back?