Retired registered nurse Linda Quinn knows firsthand how complicated a catastrophic situation abroad can be.

“Being in the field I was in, I had a number of patients throughout the years who I needed to help repatriate to other countries,” Quinn said. “I worked with different companies through the years and when patients would think, ‘Oh I have this great travel [protection] plan,’ I would call and usually it wasn’t anything close to what the patient thought they had.”

Having learned of Global Rescue during her pre-trip research, the certified case manager was impressed with what she found. When planning an annual summer trip to Asia to visit their son and daughter-in-law, Linda and her husband enrolled in a Global Rescue travel services membership.

“We always thought of it as a travel plan for catastrophic things, like if my appendix was going to go or some other major catastrophe,” she said.

Little did Quinn know, her first experience using Global Rescue wouldn’t involve a catastrophic incident.

Two years after her retirement, instead of their usual summer trip to Asia, the Quinn’s decided to take a month-long trip to Europe with the whole family.

The trip took an unexpected turn when Linda missed a step and fell at their London rental.

“I hit my head pretty hard and ended up with stitches and a trip to the emergency room there,” Quinn said.

In an English-speaking country, Quinn felt comfortable taking an Uber to the emergency room to get stitches and felt well enough to head to Paris, France for the next stop on their trip.

While in France, she needed to get her stitches removed and soon realized she might have a small problem as she does not speak French.

“That’s when I realized I was going to reach out to Global Rescue to help me find bilingual medical care to get the stitches out,” Quinn said. “I was in an area where I really wanted to be sure that wherever I went, I was going to be able to communicate with the medical providers.”

Immediately, Global Rescue got to work locating a few nearby options.

“I was so impressed – that for kind of an everyday thing you could handle easily at home, when you’re in a country where there is a language barrier, how helpful Global Rescue was,” Quinn said.

As gracious as she was to quickly receive a list of options, it was the quality of the service she received that left the biggest impression.

“I was so impressed with the communication and the professionalism, for something minor, I was treated as if I had a major catastrophic issue,” she said.

After successfully having her stitches removed, Quinn and her husband continued to Barcelona, Spain before a few friends flew in to join them for a Mediterranean cruise to round out their trip abroad.

As an annual member, Quinn says she talks about Global Rescue two to three times per week.

“We know a lot of people who travel and they don’t realize how beneficial a service like this can be,” Quinn said. “And how comforting it was once I started communicating with them. The team at Global Rescue was back and forth with me, following along until I was at the point where I said, I can take it from here.”

Quinn has even purchased memberships for both her son and daughter, with plans to continue renewing in the future.

“I highly recommend it to people,” Quinn said. “I was very impressed and I have a high standard from my previous work.”

Global Rescue memberships include personalized advisory services, 24/7 emergency assistance and evacuation services at no additional cost to you. To learn more about memberships, click here.