An ex-Royal Marine commando who smashed his pelvis in a horror holiday accident has been stranded in a Bosnian hospital after his insurers refused to fly him home.
Tony Tennant, 51, was jumping into the sea while on holiday in Mostar with his wife Dora and their two young children.
He struck something in the water and suffered a broken pelvis and a ruptured bladder. The father-of-two needs immediate surgery to prevent long-term disability.
But insurance company AXA are refusing to fly him back to the UK or pay for any medical treatment.
Tony Tennant, 51, is stranded in a Bosnian hospital with a broken pelvis and ruptured bladder
An Axa spokesman said: ‘After much consideration, our teams have determined that we are unable to cover Mr Tennant’s claim due to him taking part in a dangerous activity while on holiday in Bosnia.
‘However, we sympathise with the situation he and his family are currently in, and are offering non-financial assistance in the hope we can get them home as soon as possible.’
Mr Tennant, who now works as a rescue diver for Specialist Group International, is stranded in the foreign hospital with his ‘panicked and stressed’ family by his bedside.
His wife Dora and their two young kids are by his side but are said to be upset and panicked
His diving and rescue company colleagues are trying to raise around £20,000 pounds needed to cover his medical bills and get him back to his home in Farnborough, Hampshire.
A team of voluntary Bosnian medics were being contacted in the hope they could be put on standby to operate on him so that he would be stable enough to be transferred to the UK for treatment.
A Go Fund Me campaign has been set up and has already raised more than £12,000.
Tim Barnes, SGI operations manager, who was also a former Royal Marine Commando, said the main concern was that Tony was bleeding internally.
Mr Barnes said: ‘The main priority is to get his pelvis stabilised and find out where the blood loss is coming from. This also needs to be done quickly to prevent long-term disability and problems.
‘But moving him by road could be extremely dangerous without surgery to put essentially a Meccano set cage on the outside of his body fixing his pelvis in place.
‘We have been advised there is a window of three days to get that done.’
Mr Barnes was in constant contact with Tony’s wife Dora and their two young children as well as the British Embassy.
AXA insurance is refusing the fly the former Marine home or pay any of his medical bills
‘He was swimming in an area where local families were swimming and he struck something in the water. He knew he had done something very wrong right away and as he surfaced he indicated to his wife on the bank he was hurt.
‘He then managed to swim – by just using his arms – back to her and dragged himself out of the water before he collapsed.
‘He has ruptured his bladder and broken his pelvis. It is dangerous to move him without his pelvis being stabilised.
‘Axa have refused to deal with it as they said it was an activity that was undertaken which was outside their cover.
‘We are contacting military organisations for volunteers to go out and operate on him but we still have to have the funds in place, and sort out getting them into a hospital.’
Tony has been part of the expert rescue team who helped recover seven bodies in just four week during the extreme high temperatures. He has also taken part in cold case murder reviews where searches have been taken out.