Duane & Marian Cheney Belleview, Nebraska
Duane and I were driving down the highway in our 36’ Winnebago motorhome and towing our pickup on our way home from Wellton, Arizona to Bellevue, Nebraska. By the time we got to Alamogordo New Mexico it was around 7:00 p.m. Duane wasn’t feeling well and complained of being weak, dizzy and light-headed — and he was the one driving! I thought he could have been having a heart attack and told him we needed to get him to the ER as soon as possible. We parked the motorhome at Etherington RV Park and drove our pickup to the hospital where they admitted Duane.
Tests revealed something was wrong with his heart and doctors said more tests would be needed. The only problem was their facility didn’t have the necessary equipment or staff and Duane would need to be taken to Mountain View Regional Medical Center in Las Cruces. I called SkyMed and explained the details to Jim Edwards and he assured us we would be covered and to call him later with an update.
We were taken to Las Cruces by ground ambulance and an hour later we arrived at the hospital where the staff was waiting for us. Duane was admitted immediately, tests were run and a heart catheterization was scheduled for Monday morning. Final test results revealed a virus had affected the lower part of Duane’s heart which should have had 70% blood flow but was only at 40%. This confirmed he did not have a heart attack but Duane remained in the hospital for four days and I learned how to sleep in a hospital recliner.
We called Jim Edwards and updated him on what had happened since Friday night. SkyMed immediately arranged and paid for the air fare and shuttle fare costs to fly our son, Craig, to New Mexico to be with us. When Duane was stable enough to be released from the hospital, Craig chauffeured us home in our RV to Bellevue, Nebraska.
How did you find out about SkyMed and why did you choose SkyMed? We heard about SkyMed at the Winnebago Grand National Rally in Forest City, Iowa in 2011. We had already made plans to travel that summer and decided we needed to have SkyMed’s services in place. We realized how important it was for us to be covered if we encountered a medical emergency and we wanted to take that liability off of our children.
What would you tell your friends about your experience with SkyMed? We tell everyone that we’re 110% satisfied with SkyMed’s outstanding services. We also tell them they need to consider joining too because you just never know what’s going to happen tomorrow.
