A Chinese female student who was paragliding in Pokhara, the second largest city in Nepal, affected by the high altitude, fell into a lake, in February 2010. She was pulled from the water and admitted to a hospital in Pokhara.

Thanks to medical evacuation and repatriation coverage the student was flown by air ambulance to a hospital in Katmandu. She was diagnosed with water in both lungs and her stomach and had also suffered a severe vertebral fracture.

When her condition stabilized, she was repatriated to a hospital in Shanghai, China for further treatment.

Bupa International offers and other insurers offer evacuation and repatriation services. Bupa's service is through its in-house provider, Worldwide Medical Assistance (WMA), based in Copenhagen.

In September, 2010, WMA got a call from a male Australian customer trekking the Himalayas with his 13-year-old son. The son became exhausted and fell ill. He needed to be transported to a base camp.

The only means of transportation available was a horse at a cost of $300 per day. One of WMA's doctors approved the evacuation on horseback. It took three days.

(HK Edition 11/22/2013 page8)