Aussie backpacker Jordan Darney denied $80,000 travel insurance claim after Prague fall

An Aussie man has found out the limitations of his insurance the hard way after his claim for $80,000 was denied by the travel company. 

Appearing on SBS Insight on Tuesday night, Jordan Darney described his horrific ordeal while holidaying in Prague in the Czech Republic back in 2014 when he was 21.  

Jordan, from Marcoola on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, had returned to his hotel room after a night out with friends, when he stepped out of a window to smoke a cigarette and fell four storeys to the ground.

‘So we’d normally step outside and smoke on this flat roof surface…I went out the fourth window this night and I fell four storeys straight onto the ground,’ Jordan said.  

‘My friends ran straight down, got an ambulance and I got taken to the Prague University Hospital.

‘I smashed my pelvis, so like both sides were broken, I did (broke) my elbows, my ribs, lung, internal bleeding, my spleen and had a severe concussion.’ 

Jordan (pictured) suffered a smashed pelvis, broken elbows and ribs, had internal bleeding and a severe concussion as a result of the fall 

He woke up with little memory of the accident but it was later revealed he recorded a blood alcohol reading of 0.114. 

That blood alcohol level was classified as ‘moderate to medium.’ 

Due to his horror injuries, Jordan was unable to fly home because his insurance policy through Southern Cross Travel Insurance was voided when the company discovered he had been drinking before the incident. 

When asked whether he thought that amount of alcohol could void a travel insurance policy, Jordan said, ‘no not all, and nor did majority of anybody that I’ve spoken to’.

Jordan (pictured) woke up with little memory of the accident but it was later revealed he recorded a blood alcohol reading of 0.114

‘I think on my travel insurance maybe it was on page 53 of the fine print,’ he said. 

‘When you go on holidays you don’t go out to binge drink as such…but you go on holidays to relax and have a drink.

‘You might have two drinks at dinner…so does that void your travel insurance?’

Jordan’s mother Sue flew to Europe on the first available flight after her son called her and her husband Craig to tell them what had happened.

‘Jordan rang from hospital and Sue answered and asked, “Is dad there with you?”‘ Craig told Daily Mail Australia back in 2014.

Jordan (pictured) had been prepped for surgery when he was informed that his insurance company was refusing to pay the medical bills because he had been drinking 

‘He told us both to sit down in a really low, horrible voice. I was assuming the worst, but then I realised that if he was ringing then he must be alright.

‘After we got off the phone we broke down and tried to console each other and then it was a mad thing of “what do we do, ring the insurance company, get some flights”.’

Jordan had been prepped for surgery when he was informed that his insurance company was refusing to pay the medical bills because he had been drinking. 

‘Sue had to max out her credit cards to get him the surgery, and since then it cost us $6000 a week just for him to stay in hospital,’ Craig said.

Back in 2014, Craig said the family were worried about finding the money to keep Jordan in hospital.

‘He’s going to be there for at least another six or seven weeks, and I’m not sure where we’re going to get the money from,’ he said.

‘Money doesn’t mean anything to me. If I have to live in a hut for the rest of my life, I don’t care. That’s why you have kids. I just want Jordan home.’  

His father Craig had quizzed Southern Cross Travel Insurance about their policy details

In order to get Jordan home, the family had to raise the $60,000 needed to pay for a specialised medical team to assist him on a flight home. 

As a result of his injuries, Jordan was unable to sit up for take off or landing, and so had to lie on a stretcher throughout the flight.

His father Craig had quizzed Southern Cross Travel Insurance about their policy details.

‘I posed a hypothetical question to them, and asked that “if I was overseas and shared a bottle of wine with my wife, and looked one way before crossing but forgot to look the other, and was hit by a car, would I be covered?”‘ he said.

‘They couldn’t answer me. But that’s the same level alcohol as Jordan. I just don’t know what the world is coming to.’

Daily Mail Australia contacted Southern Cross Travel Insurance for comment.