I know, it’s a silly question to be asking someone in the transport game as this would most likely be a daily occurrence for you lot.
However, it is not for this old pencil pushing desk jockey, as the closest I would usually come to a near death experience would be after banging my head on the desk when I bend down to pick a pen up off the floor!
However, on one sunny morning on the new year’s long weekend just gone, I was sitting on the veranda having a coffee and enjoying the morning sun.
Then out of the blue I felt this pressure in the centre of my chest (not pain, just pressure), then my eyes started to flicker like an old black and white TV used to do when it wasn’t tuned in properly and then the head started to spin like the girl out of Poltergeist, all of this happened and lasted for approximately 30 seconds.
I thought, ‘WOW, that was trippy’.
Of course being the medical expert that I am NOT, I put it down to the pepperoni with cheesy crust pizza the night before, so continued to sit there sipping on my coffee, then I remembered about a mate of mine who went for a check-up just because he had been slowly becoming more and more breathless over the last couple of months, turns out the cause of the breathlessness was three narrowed arteries in his heart.
With the thoughts of my mate in mind, I thought ‘bugger it’ and at the chance of embarrassing myself over a bit of indigestion, I’ll just sneak down the hospital and get checked.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, my wife caught me sneaking out the door with the car keys. After explaining why I was off to hospital and the following ear bashing my wife for trying to drive myself, we arrived at hospital.
The diagnosis was a heart attack due to a blocked main right artery and a partially blocked main left artery. Luckily, two stents later we are still here to annoy you lot and still alive to tell the story.
As a result of having had a heart attack I was not permitted to drive or work for two weeks, which is no big deal for a desk jockey, however for a heavy vehicle operator a heart attack would result in a licence suspension of up to three months.
That would mean no income for three months if you earn $2000 a week that would add up to $24,000 over the three months. I don’t know about you, but if I was to have No income for three months, I would really be on struggle street.
It is for this reason why Personal Accident and Sickness Income Protection would have to be one of the most important types of insurance policies you could possibly have, especially as an employee (wage earner).
Of course, you should always make yourself aware of your responsibilities under the terms and conditions of your policy either by reading them yourself or asking your insurance broker to explain them to you. If you abide by the terms and conditions of your policy, have had no pre-existing injuries or illness as defined under the policy and your injury or illness is not an exclusion under the policy, there should be no reason for an insurer to decline your claim.
If we lose our ability to earn an income, we will struggle to feed the family let alone pay the house and car repayments or even be able to pay for the insurance on the house or car! It’s that simple.
Take it from me, no one is invincible and a heart attack can happen to anyone anytime. Give us a call at TBI we’ll have a chat about a Personal Accident and Sickness plan for you as an individual or to arrange a group plan for every driver within your organisation.
Important: All information contained within this article should be considered as General Advice Only. This advice should only be considered as General in Nature and its intent is only to prompt the readers to investigate their own individual insurances. It has been prepared without taking into account the readers own individual objectives, financial situation or needs. Because of that, before acting on the above advice, the client or any persons should consider its appropriateness (having regard to their objectives, needs and financial situation) and seek further independent advice from their own financial advisor.
About the author:
Mark Brown is a leading industry insurance broker with TBI Insurance Services based in Wagga Wagga.