THE family of a Corfe Mullen man who died after falling off a hotel balcony have claimed he would have survived had his medical insurers not waited 18 days to get him specialist care.

Richard Stickland, known as John, was taken to a medical centre on the Caribbean island of Antigua with critical injuries after mysteriously plunging 50ft from the balcony late at night.

A Bournemouth inquest heard a doctor told Mr Stickland's son James his father needed to be moved off the island to receive specialist care as they had limited equipment and supplies.

James Stickland said he repeatedly called their medical insurance company to arrange for his father to be flown to a hospital in Florida but had to wait four days to discuss the case with the firm's medical director.

In a recorded conversation with a doctor at the local medical centre, the director said that insurers were absolutely terrified of the cost of American hospitals and try to avoid it, the inquest heard.

Mr Stickland, 64, was eventually flown three-and-a-half hours to a hospital in Miami 18 days after he fell but died two days later from his injuries.

The insurance company denied that cost had been a factor in their decision making in Mr Stickland's case and the Dorset coroner said there wasn't sufficient evidence that the delay contributed to his death.

But after the inquest Mr Stickland's daughter Amy Stickland, 27, said in a statement: "We firmly believe that our dad would still be alive had the travel insurers not delayed organising an air ambulance to transfer dad from Antigua to the hospital in Miami, where they had the staff and facilities.

"The insurers were first advised that the treating doctor in Antigua was asking for dad to be transferred two days after the accident.

"He was finally transferred 18 days later; by which time his condition had deteriorated and he was critically ill. He was brain stem dead when he arrived at the hospital in Miami.

"It stands to reason that had dad been transferred to Miami when his condition was stable, he would have had a far better chance, than existed when he was transferred having become critically ill."

The inquest heard that Mr Stickland, a builder from Corfe Mullen, and his son travelled to Antigua on February 21 last year for a holiday at the Jolly Beach Hotel.

After spending their first evening out, they returned to their room on the fourth floor but Mr Stickland decided to sleep on the balcony due to the heat.

James, 33, woke up in the early hours to find his father gone. He was found in a collapsed state on the ground below having somehow fallen.

He was rushed to the local hospital with head injuries, a fractured wrist, a fractured femur and 19 fractures to his ribs.

James and his sister made several phone calls to their insurance company, Union Reiseversicherung AG, part of tifgroup (Travel Insurance Facilities), stressing how important it was to get him moved.

But they did not receive a call back from tifgroup's medical director, Dr Miguel Nadal, until four days later.

Dr Nadal told the inquest the medical team of the insurance company had looked at the medical reports and the risk of air travel was too great at that time.

In a statement read out at the inquest, Dr Steve Richards, of the Mount St John's Medical Centre on Antigua, said: "Mr Stickland would have had a much better chance of survival if he had been transferred earlier."

But Dr Nadal said when he spoke to Dr Richards on March 1 he did not say he thought Mr Stickland should be moved.

But they agreed to try to reserve him a bed at the hospital on the neighbouring islands of Guadeloupe or Martinique in case his condition worsened.

The inquest heard both hospitals could not offer a bed and in a recorded conversation with Dr Richards on March 9, Dr Nadal said "insurers are absolutely terrified of the cost" of American hospitals and "try to avoid it".

Exploring Puerto Rico as an option he asked Dr Richards: "I have no idea about costs, do they charge?"

But Dr Nadal told the Bournemouth inquest the medical team did not think about money or costs, only what was best for patients and Mr Stickland should not have been moved at the start of March.

He said: "Myself and the medical team do not think about money, I don't care what things cost. America isn't liked by insurance companies because they charge for unnecessary operations. They do not care about the patient at all, it's money first and then we will do what we can after.

"Initially the risks massively outweighed the benefits.

"Air ambulances are a particularly dangerous environment. When there's a real benefit we provide air ambulances but we always asses the risk of transferring them versus the risk of them staying somewhere that doesn't have the equipment to treat them.

"Antigua to Guadeloupe is maybe 45 miles, it would take minutes in an aircraft, Miami is three-and-a-half hours, that kind of long distance transfer could kill the patient in his condition."

Asked by Tom Bourne-Arton, representing the hotel, if Mr Stickland should or could have been moved to Miami on March 2 or 3, Dr Nadal said: "Categorically not."

After initially improving, Mr Stickland's condition deteriorated on March 10 and he was flown by air ambulance to Miami on March 12.

But he was declared 'clinically brain dead' when he arrived and died on March 14.

A post mortem examination confirmed he died of ARDS (Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome) due to sepsis, due to multiple injuries consistent with a fall.

Verdict: accidental death