Amazing Nomads: Zoe Eleftheriou – Wrong Place, Wrong Time

Speaker 1: The World Nomads podcast bonus episode, hear amazing nomads sharing their knowledge, stories and experience of world travel.

Kim: We have delivered you some special episodes highlighting our amazing nomads, Phil. They're the people that demonstrate discovery, connection, transformation, fear and love through travel. Now, this episode is particularly personal as 22-year-old English backpackers, Zoe shares her incredible story of survival after an illegal petrol station exploded in Cambodia. It was all over the news.

Phil: If you don't believe in travel insurance, we have far too many, all too true stories of cases, our World Nomad 24/7 emergency assistance and claims teams have dealt with. Including Zoe, who by the way was also lucky to escape the earthquake in Lombok in 2018, that one terrible, killed 563 people and injured thousands more. And that time, Zoe was one of the lucky ones.

Kim: Just lucky. She was in a restaurant and the wall of the restaurant almost collapsed on top of her.

Phil: Wow.

Kim: So look, natural disasters can and do happen but it is the unforeseen circumstances, which Zoe will touch on, that you cannot plan for. So Zoe and her friend Abbey, if you aren't aware of the story, we're both badly injured when they were riding past the petrol station during their lunch break. Right?

Phil: Yep.

Kim: So they just jumped on their scooters like they normally did, went for lunch and were heading back to a local school in Siem Reap in Cambodia. Now the statement at the time said, "The explosion was caused by an improper transfer of gas from the tanker to the main storage."

Phil: You think?

Kim: "Which led to a leak and subsequently an explosion." I was actually fortunate enough to interview Zoe and her mom, Mary, at their home in Kent in the UK to check in on how she's going.

Zoe: I'm feeling really good. I'm back at home and I love being back at home because I can eat all the food I want. I've got friends and family coming to see me and that's great because they make me feel really happy and stuff, and that's always lovely. I'm more independent at home so I could do everything for myself and that's great. So now I'm feeling really, really good.

Kim: Okay. So for those that aren't familiar with your story, take us through what happened in Cambodia.

Zoe: So I was a teacher with my TEFL qualification in Cambodia, the country that I love the most. Me and my friend never teach at the same school, Abbey Alexander. She came to my house for lunch, so we taught in the morning and then it has that three-hour break. So she came to my house for lunch, we had lunch and then we're driving back to school for the afternoon classes, and the same route that I take every day. And as we drove around the corner, on my left I could see that this building was on fire and it's a petrol station. So I legit for, "Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit." And so obviously, unfortunately, it's not a major crossroad, so I couldn't just drive out straight cause if there was a car or another motorbike we'd crash. So I had to make sure it was clear.

It was clear so that I could finally drive, and I was there and I was like, "Go, go, go, go, go." And unfortunately, it just went boom, right? So, unfortunately, the fire then went all the way in front of us and then it came back all the way behind us. Now I'm sitting on a motorbike and that has petrol inside it so I'm now thinking, "Is this thing going to explode on us?" So we got off the bike. Abbey, bless her, she's wearing leggings and the work T-shirt, so it's like a short-sleeved T-shirt and it's all caught on fire, all of it is caught on fire. So she's rolling around on the floor, I'm running away, and then she's screaming, "I'm on fire, I'm on fire." So I had to turn around, run back to Abbey, pat her down then be like, "You're not on fire anymore, it's fine we need to go." Because I was thinking it's going to explode again, or the motorbike is going to explode, and we're right next to it.

We got up and we run, we run away from the site and we're going to Khmer people, so Cambodian people to be there. "Can you help us? You need to take us to the hospital or to the clinic," but unfortunately they're just taking their phones out to take photos or to take videos. So I was there and I was like, "We're going to need to continue on to school and they're going to help us. They're going to take us to where we need to go." So I wanted to run and she's there like, "I can't run, I can't run. Now, bless her, I'm looking at her and she's got skin hanging off of her, it's just dripping off her clothes, it all seems like everything's on show, bless her.

And she's there and she's like, "What do I look like?" And I'm there and I'm like, "You must look like me." Now I can see that she hasn't got any eyebrows, she hasn't got any facial features anymore. Just her eyes and some lips but all her skin is peeling off. So I was presuming I looked exactly the same, so I was there and I was like, "You look like me." So anyway we walked on to school and I'm just there and I'm like, "I need ice." I was like, "I'm on fire," everything was just burning, it was just such intense pain, it was awful. I'm blessed so I couldn't run away, because she couldn't run, so I was there and I was like, "I'm just got to walk there, but I was there like, "Please walk fast." But unfortunately, as we're walking, everyone's got their phones out and taking videos of us walking to school. Because it's something, it's what they do, it's how they are.

Anyway, we walked to school. Now her brother works at that school, so she's there screaming her brother's name. Now all the students, all the teachers are hanging around outside because they've heard the explosion. So they want to see like, "Oh what's that from?" So when they see us turning the corner, it was a bit of a huge shock. Do you know what I mean? It was a huge shock. I'm there screaming for teacher Tom, which is the receptionist, and she's there like, "Who's this?" I'm there like, "It's teacher Zoe." I'm there like, "It's teacher Zoe," I'm there like, "I need to go to the clinic." So then she's shouting at the receptionist to get in her car, to take us both to the clinic. Abbey's shouting at Tony to call her mom and dads, get them to meet them at the clinic.

So Tony came with us, because that's Abbey's brother, and they drove us to the closest clinic, which was just down the road. Honestly, it's not that far away from the school so it's quite handy to have a clinic by the school. And I run inside and I was there like, "Right, I need ice," I was like, "I need a doctor," and I was like, "And I need painkillers." I was like, "I need it right now."

So they took us into this room and they got these bins, and they filled them with water and they put the ice packet, do you know those ice packets or blocks of ice? And so unfortunately that we couldn't put our whole bodies in there, but I put my feet in there, and I put my hands in there and I was there and I was like, "My face is still burning." I was like, "You need ice on my face." Do you know what I mean?

Abbey was like, "I'm in so much pain" and that they gave us pain because I was kind of just having to turn around and say to myself, "You're going to be fine, it's skin, skin grows back." I was there like, "You're going to be fine, your internal organs are fine," I was there like, "It's just skin," I was there like, "Skin grows back." So I had to continuously say in my head, "Abbey is, bless her, Abbey's a lot younger she's 18." So, bless her, she's freaking out and stuff, which is understandable because she can just see her skin hanging off and dripping off her. I then noticed that my jeans had split and my leg had massive blisters. I was there and I was like, "You're going to need to." So they was cutting off all the rest of her clothes and then, I was there and I was like, "You're going to need to cut my clothes."

So I was there like, "Because I've got burned down my leg," and then they was like, "Oh damn," because I couldn't see it before. But my face started swelling up, my eyes and stuff were finding it hard to open up. Why? They was like, "Open little slits." This clinic is now filling up, it's the closest clinic to the explosion so all the Cambodians are now coming. There's too many people, obviously there's not enough doctors for the amount of people that are turning up. So they're there and they're like, "We're white, we need to go to Royal Angkor", which is like the expensive hospital. It's really expensive, it's like $90 to see a doctor and then $100 just to hear what he said.

Anyway, the ambulance came for me, I've got to the hospital and I was there and I was like, "This is three grand." "Can we put it in your arm at this drip?" They was there like, "We need this drip it's $3000, can we put it in your arm?" I was there like, "Can we please just wait?" I was there like, "For my insurance company?" I was there like, "Because if they say no," I was there like, "We're working on a budget," and I was like, "The budget is what's ever in my purse." I was there like, "So you're going to do this all on a budget." Because even with my full teacher's wage, which is probably coming that Friday, it was not three grand. I was there like, "I wouldn't even have the three grand for this drip, with my wages as a teacher."

Kim: From the start of the story, the whole time you're thinking about things. Now I can't believe that you would still have your wits about you basically.

Zoe: Yeah, I knew that if I was freaking out in the clinic it just wouldn't have been... I had to sort of just calm myself so I didn't go into complete shock or something. Do you know what I mean?

Kim: Is this the teacher in you?

Zoe: Possibly. Possibly. I feel like maybe the earthquake situation the year before, when you sort of just like, "I know that feeling," when you just need to concentrate on breathing. It's one of the things that just concentrating on your breathing can solve. Just, I don't even know, your head just has to concentrate on one thing rather than all the things around them. Rather than the pain, rather than anything else. It's just got to concentrate on something as simple as breathing in and breathing out.

Kim: And I'm sitting here in your lounge room and Mary, your mom's sitting over by the telly and quite emotional, [inaudible 00:08:32].

Zoe: What is crazy is that, something that is so routine, something like brushing your teeth, something like getting in the shower, going to work, just completely changed my life.

Km: Well tell me about how it's affected you, and what injuries did you sustain? And ongoing, what effect is that going to have on you.?

Zoe: So on the burns I had burns, I have burns on both of my feet. I was wearing jeans, okay? And now I have a beautiful jeans line all the way up to my left leg. So where the jeans split in the explosion with the pressure, is seen just kind of ripped open on my thigh. So at the top of my thigh and the bottom of my thigh, and actually the bottom of my leg is all just burnt. I have burns on my right thigh, burns on both of my hands because unfortunately they were out holding onto the handlebars, burns on my face and on my neck. So anything, any skin that was showing was burned. But unfortunately, my leg got completely burned, because the seam decided to split with the explosion on the left-hand side.

So when I went to Thailand they were lancing away at the skin and stuff, all dead skin that I had. And that was for a couple of weeks and then I was finally ready to do the skin grafts. But then the insurance company took me to East Grinstead, which is back at home, and when East Grinstead looked at my injuries, they was there like, "It's great, your right foot and stuff has healed already, you're right thigh has healed, your face and your neck as healed." Because at the time they was probably thinking they needed to do skin grafts on all these areas, so your hands still need skin grafts, your legs still need skin grafts and your left foot needs skin grafts. So the whole left foot, left side, left leg need a skin grafts and so did my hands but nothing else, which was great.

So it's that what was 35% and 39% burns, is now actually only 15% burns. And I was there like, "Fantastic. That sounds really, really good." I didn't look at myself at this time because I'm not particularly ready to look at my injuries. So I was blindfolded during all this.

Kim: And you already knew what Abbey looked like?

Zoe: I knew what she looked like originally but I had no idea what she was looking like after. When I got to Royal Angkor, we were separated for infection reasons and they was telling me that there's penar tube in her throat because she was swelling and they were worried that her throat would close up. She was being sent to Phnom Penh by ambulance and her bill just from where we was in Siem Reap or just in Royal Angkor was like $39,000. And I was already thinking, "Fuck, she has no insurance, how is she going to pay for this? Or how is the family going to pay for this?"

They went to Phnom Penh and before she could even get into the hospital, they were demanding $10,000 at the door. Then they tried to go to another hospital, which was cheaper, but this hospital didn't even have the machine that keeps you breathing, so they was just expecting the mom and dad to pump. Her bill in the end was like $250,000 US dollars, and the American embassy got involved to pay for her to go back to America, because otherwise every day that she stayed in Cambodia, just the room itself that she would have been in, would have just made that cost go much more.

KIm: So go back to when they were going to put the $3,000 dollar drip in, and you are going, "Hang on, don't know what sort of budget I'm working on here." At what point did World Nomads Insurance kind of kick in?

Zoe: When I first arrived in Cambodia, the Cambodian family that I have, Nana, I send him my insurance details and I said, "If I die, this is who you call." I was like, "Call mom, let her know, call dad, let them know nicely." I was there like, "Don't put it on Facebook," I was real strict because that's what they do when someone dies then they're like, "Oh please pray for my dead friend," and it's a picture of the dead friend. I was like, "Please don't do that to me nana." I was there like, "England's not the same." I was like, "We don't do that, at all." But I sent him my insurance details, I was like, "If anything happens to me," I was like, "You need to call this number," I was there like, "They pay for everything for me," I was like, "That's what you need to do."

So because my face was now all completely swollen I couldn't open my eyes, trying to get someone to go into my phone, open up the insurance, find the email, get the contact details, to then call them. But I remember I arrived into the hospital and straight away they was there like, "This drip costs $3,000, can we put it in?" I was there like, "No," I was there like, "Please wait," I was there like, "We're just going to contact the insurance company," I was there like, "If they say yes, fine."

Kim: It's just bizarre that they even talk about cost, isn't it jut about saving your life?

Zoe: Yeah, do you know what I mean? No, they were just there like, "$3000 can we put it in your arm?" Almost like it's sitting there like, "Oh, would you like this in your arm? No, please wait." So when the insurance company said yes, which wasn't even that long, people just kept on coming in like, "Oh, can we put this in you?" No, no I was like, "Have the insurance company said yes? Not yet? Just wait please."

So, and then when they came back, I was there like, "Have the insurance company said yes?" They was there like, "Yes." I was like, "Give me everything," and I was like, "Do it all," I was like, "Give me the whole work." And I think I was just so relaxed, you know what I mean? I was just so Zen, so calm, you know? And it came to the time that I needed to call mom, Saneen got me, bless him, he put me on video call. Right? Right? So I turned around and she's driving and I'm there like, "Hi mom," I was there like, "There's been a minor accident, minor fucking explosion, but I'm all good." I was just so high, right? Really playing it down because I remember for the earthquake, when I called her, it was proper, "Oh my God, mom, I love you so much." I get so panicky, do you know what I mean? Never really freaked her out so I was like, "Let's be calm," I couldn't call dad so she told dad in the end and they was asking for photos and stuffs.

So Nana had sent her the photos that he took in the hospital at the beginning, and here's there, "They're not nice, mom," he's like, "They're not nice at all." And she's there, "I need to see them." So I think when she saw the photo, she was like, "Right," and they're like, "Right, we talking about flights and stuff," and mom's there like, "I need to do one more day at work." Not that I knew this, no one told me this. She just sort of arrived, when I had a dream I was like, "I really need my mom," and then she sort of just arrived. I was there like, "Dreams do come true." It was like, "Mom's here," do you know what I mean? I was there like, "I thank God."

Kim: you've sat here and listened to Zoe, go through her story and you were quite emotional at the beginning. How many heart attacks has she given you?

Mary: Only two. Last year it was worse than this year. I think last year because it was a goodbye, this year it was a lot calmer, I'm okay. So first flight, you can get me tomorrow morning, get me out, I've got to go see my dad as I'm going to go back to work this afternoon, I'm going to finish work till midnight If I have to, to get away, if I need to get done, and then I'm going. And I've gone flying straight through the room, no gowns or nothing and they've literally just grabbed me and pulled me back and said, "No, you got to be gowned up," and I was like, "For goodness’ sake that's okay," [inaudible 00:14:17] the mask and these gloves that are too small, and this gown thing that you had to wrap around your entire palm 250 times, and then I was just like, "Zoe, I'm here."

Yeah? And they're like, "You're mom?" I was like, "Yeah," "Can you sign these papers please?" "What? What are these for?" "For her treatment that we've done for the last two days." And I was like, "Is this covered by the insurance?" "It's all covered." I was signing loads, and I was just looking at these figures thinking, "Oh my God, can you sign the next 14 days worth? Can you sign the next 10 days' worth? Can you sign for this room?" So the first was to sign for her room, then it's to sign for the surgeon to do this, the Lancing. Then it's to sign for the Northeast test, then it's to sign for the nurses.

Kim: Did you know at this point that World Nomads was covering all of this?

Mary: I'd heard they were covering and I kept saying to them, "Is the insurance covering this? I don't want to be signing this and all of a sudden I'm picking the bill up."

Kim: Because otherwise we're back to the budget.

Mary: Yeah, yeah. I would.I mean okay [crosstalk 00:15:05], yeah, I bet I go and put my house on for sale at that back home. And they said, "No, no it's all covered." And you're like, "Okay." And to be honest, I'd have carried on signing out, I would have sold this house if I had to. I would have done anything and so would her dad. But at the same time you want to make sure that I haven't met my limit. And so I was, I was actually looking through her policy to actually see what she was insured.

And when I spoke to one of your guys, I said, "Am I near our limit?" And they went, "You're nowhere near your limit, just keep going, just keep signing, it's covered." And once you've got that reassurance that you don't have to worry about that side, I just had to then keep her positive.

Kim: Will you travel again?

Zoe: I want to, I love to travel, I absolutely love it. There's so many places I still want to see, I want to go to Canada, I want to see the Taj Mahal in India, I want to go to Iceland, there are so many places I still want to see. Do it the local way, you know what I mean? Just proper going the local route, that's what I absolutely love, and someone will tell me about a place they've been to and it's never even been on my radar before, but it sounds awesome. And then I'm like, "You know what, I'd love to go there also." Do you know what I mean? So it's stuff like that.

So I do. I'd love to travel again, but unfortunately, the doctors have turned around and said because of my skin, and now how sensitive it is to the sun, if I burn it, that's going to be bad. And also it's chance of staining or pigmentation, so that's what I'm worried about, is my skin. I don't do anything more to damage it, but then at the same time they're there and they're talking 2-5 years.

Kim: The biggest issue now is just getting yourself right?

Zoe: Yeah. It is yeah, that is the bit that I have to worry about. I mean, I'd love to go back to Cambodia, plus everyone over there, the Canadian family, they're like, "Are you going to come back?" And it breaks my heart that I'm there and I'm like, "It's possible that I won't be able to go to you guys for a long time." Because I'd love to.

Kim: You're a remarkable woman and an incredible story. 2018 the earthquake, 2019 the explosion.

Zoe: Let's just leave it there.

Kim: Will we stop there?

Zoe: We will stop there.

Kim: Okay.

Zoe: I sweat a lot. Honestly, I'm there and I'm like, "It's fine," after the earthquake I was there like, "That's it," the most traumatic thing in my life is done, right? And someone up there was there like, "Ha, we're just kidding, you haven't seen nothing yet."

Kim: What's your message to people about travel insurance?

Zoe: Oh my goodness, do it. I was a teacher and I would complain to my mom about buying travel insurance. I was like, "The worst thing I'm going to get is a paper cut." I was there like, "Why do I need to get travel insurance? I'm just going to school." I was like, "Unless a kid physically beats me up." I was like, "I shouldn't have any worries," but do it because I would not have the money that it took, just for Thailand, I did not know Thailand's bill because we saw it at the end and I was curious, and that was 179,000 pounds. I bought the thing, I think I bought the travel insurance for like 350 pounds. Come on now, it's just such an obvious, such an obvious. And anything can happen, I was just going to work, something so simple, something in your routine, do you know what I mean? Anything can happen, just have it.

Kim: She is remarkable, as I said, what do you think of your daughter?

Mary: I think she's inspirational. All the way through this, she's been worried about other people rather than herself, but I do I think she's absolutely.

Kim: So as you heard, we trailed off there into a group hug and lots of tears, it was very emotional Phil. But let's hear from Sheree and Karen from our emergencies, this department who were just so fantastic as you heard Zoe's mom mentioned, and the role that they play during and posts Zoe's accident. So firstly, Sheree, what was your role?

Sheree So yeah, I'm a case coordinator for the emergency assistance team. I was first called from the hospital in regards to Zoe's case. And I guess we escalated it to our medical team.

Kim: This was the clinic she was in, in Siem Reap?

Sheree Correct. Yeah, yeah, in Cambodia.

Kim: Right. And I mean, did they explain how bad it was?

Sheree Yeah, I guess I'm not medical, but it was burns. So that's kind of a bit of a rare case for us to get burns so, and because of the location, Cambodia, that's kind of a low risk location, oh sorry, high risk location for us. So I kind of knew, okay, we need to escalate to the medical team so Karen. And that's why Karen stepped in.

Speaker 2: Ah, this nurse Karen, Karen what was your role?

Karen: So I'm one of the registered nurses that works for emergency assistance and I unfortunately, or fortunately, I work remotely from the office. So you just get these surprise calls because often if you're in the office, you can hear what's going on behind you. And then Sharee, just rang and she said, "Oh look, I've got this case in Cambodia of a young girl who's been," I think she actually told me she was 37% or 35% burns, which is actually quite significant. And she said that it was around her neck and some of her face. And that is really, really alarming to hear because any burn is alarming, but any burn around a neck and face is really alarming because it could actually be inhalation burns as well, which means that they could also have burning on the inside of their esophagus, which could swell and completely covered their airway and basically they can die from that airway obstruction.

So I said to Sharee, I think this will be an urgent, we need to get this girl out of the area that she's in. And we were really lucky, we got some photos as well that came from the hospital and at that point we were able to talk to her as well. So I think I rang the doctor and then we spoke to Zoe. The doctor was very keen to get her out of the hospital, which is fair enough, he's worried about the resources and the availability that they've got, to what they could do to treat her.

Speaker 2: She must have been running on adrenaline though, because before she got to Sharee and before she got to you, she's having to these decisions on whether or not she should have a drip or pain relief, because they talk about the cost of it and she says, "Well, I don't know, I don't know if my travel insurance is going to cover it otherwise is," he is always saying, "We're going to work off a budget here." So, it's almost like once you guys kicked in, she was able to give in to what had happened to her, pass it onto her mom, and Sharee were you the one that was dealing with Mary?

Sheree No. I didn't deal with Mary but when you're talking about Zoe and speaking to her initially, I was actually quite surprised speaking to her, how calm she was. She's just been through this horrific incident and we get some travelers that call through and they might have had a paper cut as Zoe said, and they're distraught and they're panicking, and you've got to really calm them down. I was really surprised with her condition, that in her incident she just happened, how calm she was.

Speaker 2: Yeah she was.

Sheree Yeah.

Speaker 2: And I wouldn't think. Were you dealing with Mary then? Because she was-

Karen: No, no, no. I actually didn't speak to Mary until a week or so down the track. I spoke to Zoe's father probably first that night, I think it was that night I spoke to him and told him what we're doing.

Speaker 2: Well, whoever was speaking to Zoe's mom, she was very, very grateful because they were just shoving pieces of paper, as you can imagine, the different types of treatment, and as a registered nurse, Karen, you'd understand, they was shoving pieces of paper under her nose to sign for every single thing that she is doing.

Karen: Oh yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2: So whoever was dealing with her from Emergency Assist was really holding her hand and made her feel quite comfortable, and just like Zoe was able to kind of give into what happened to her, then she was able to become the mom and to worry about her daughter and not worry about the insurance claim. So you guys do an incredible job.

Karen: Thank you.

Speaker 3: But It must be quite satisfied to find out that somebody is as grateful as Zoe, and her mom, and her family have been as well.

Karen: It certainly was because you often don't have that chance of following up with people. So it was really nice to hear that she's actually ended up as well as she has been, and it was actually a real surprise to see her, listen to her because I don't think we really got to speak to her that much, because mom was involved and she was often on a ventilator so, in the first couple of weeks. So yeah, it was nice, it was really good.

Speaker 3: All power to you guys, that's great, fantastic for your involvement in helping out Zoe as well, so well done.

Karen: Thanks for allowing us to give you updates and do this sort of thing.

Kim: Incredible story. I looked, there's plenty of dashcam vision and people have captured some of the vision on their phone cameras as well, so you can find that pretty easy if you have a look and it will really help you appreciate how miraculous it is that Zoe and Abby managed to survive that.

Kim: Yeah, wrong place, wrong time. Now, well I was lucky enough to share a couple of hours in Zoe's home. One of the only reasons why she agreed to chat, to what she sees in the media. Look, it's an interview for a podcast, it's available for public consumption, even though Worlds Nomads was the insurance, insurer rather. It was to reiterate the importance of traveling insurance.

Phil: Yeah. But look, just because Zoe was covered by World Nomads, it doesn't necessarily mean that you would be covered as well because there are other circumstances that may be involved in a claim that you put in. So always check your policy wording and check with your insurer about your, things such as you going to make sure that you're licensed to ride a motorcycle and things like that. So very complicated, because she was covered it doesn't mean you automatically are.

Kim: Check the policy wording.

Phil: Okay.

Kim: Bye.

Speaker 1: Amazing Nomads, be inspired.