Keri
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Location: La Mision, Baja Norte
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Save a life post
Tom, Thanks so much for your repost on Amigos board. You should post it again here . It is great information for everyone. My friends and I have
been having conversations about this very topic. What would happen if we had a major medical problem here in Baja. I like doing a little research
before I sign up for things myself and before I reccommend it to my friends. So, I went in and personally talked to Celia Diaz at her Binational
Emergency Crisis Commitee office in Chula Vista. She is a very nice and gracious lady and she knows her business . She also offered to come down here
(Baja) and speak to our group to inform us of our options. This is something we all need to know about whether we live here or we are just visiting.
This is a non-profit organization that has been in business for 26 years. I signed up . I hope you all do also. It could save your life. Thanks
again Tom. ,k
[Edited on 11-14-2002 by Keri]
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Minnow
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Gene Kira's Save a life post. A Repost.
Baja Beat Column, December 31, 2001, by Gene Kira, as orginally published in Western Outdoor News
Stop right now, and copy this U.S. phone number: 619-425-5080. If you travel in Baja, this 24-hour-per-day emergency number might literally save your
life someday. It belongs to the Binational Emergency Medical Care Committee (BEMCC), which specializes in helping seriously sick or injured tourists
get out of Mexico.
The BEMCC is a non-profit organization run on a volunteer basis for the past 25 years by a remarkable woman named Celia Diaz. It operates with a
volunteer staff out of a cramped and crowded suite of offices in Chula Vista, and it's a beehive of activity fielding about 500 requests for help or
information per week.
The minute I walked into Diaz' office, I knew I would like her. The place is so crowded with files and books, you have to wiggle your butt around in
order to sit down. You can't get a word in edgewise, because the phone rings every 30 seconds or so. Sometimes, two lines go off at once.
Sitting on a table behind Diaz are four large Rolodex files, jammed to bursting with index cards containing the phone numbers of hundreds of
decision-makers on both sides of the border: American and Mexican chiefs of police, heads of customs agencies, mayors and senators, the FBI, Coast
Guard, Army, Navy, Immigration, hospitals, insurance companies, ambulances, air evac companies--you name it.
Why all the fuss?
The problem is that in Mexico, some medical facilities view sick or injured tourists as cash cows to be milked until they are dry. If sudden trauma
happens to you in unfamiliar territory, the chances are good that you may end up at one of these questionable "clinicas." This is because they pay
commissions to taxi drivers, ambulance drivers, police, anybody on the street, to bring them patients.
If you end up in this kind of clinica, you are given medical care, but you are also detained as long as possible, so that more fees can be charged.
After they've run your bill up as high as possible, they will then call an air evac company...and collect a commission on that too. You may then be
detained even further, until such time as you can settle your account by paying perhaps many thousands of dollars in hard-to-obtain quick cash.
Enter Celia Diaz's BEMCC.
When you call them (collect from anywhere in Mexico) with a serious emergency, Diaz instantly mobilizes her lawyers, physicians, law enforcement
officers, military commanders, politicians, and anybody else it takes to get you out of there, pronto, cash or no cash.
In the past 25 years, she has done this for more than 6,000 Americans in deep trouble. If necessary, BEMCC will apply "pressure" to get you out and
whisk you back across the border. Although there are no absolute guarantees, Diaz says that over the last quarter-century BEMCC has not yet failed to
get results.
To register with the non-profit BEMCC, you pay $25 per year (fully tax deductible), and provide information about your regular U.S. health and
accident insurance coverage, which you should review to be sure that it covers foreign emergency treatment and evacuation. (Note that your regular
health insurance probably already covers evacuation, possibly making separate air evac policies redundant.) You receive a registration card with
instructions on what to do in case of emergency, including possible fatalities in which bodies must be brought back. Using your regular insurance as a
guarantee, BEMCC will negotiate with the clinica to settle your account and allow you to be air evacuated, without your having to come up with large
amounts of instant cash. Once you call them, BEMCC takes over and coordinates necessary arrangements to bring you back.
It could save your life. BEMCC, 642 Third Avenue, Ste. I, Chula Vista, CA 91910. Phone 619-425-5080.
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Keri
Super Nomad
Posts: 1393
Registered: 10-31-2002
Location: La Mision, Baja Norte
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Mood: muy contento
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save a life.
Thanks ,I didn't know how to do that. Repost.and I didn't have a copy. It's great information. Celia will come to your group and speak also. or she
will send you applications. Just call her. k
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reefrocket
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Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: Idaho
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This information should be posted on all sites! Thanks Minnow and Keri for bring it here!
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Anonymous
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http://www.binationalemergency.org/
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