You may notice the large gap between this post and the last. There is a reason. The main purpose of this post is not to scare you with the possibility of your child returning home for medical reasons but rather to let you know what happens when it has to happen. We, as parents, all hope and pray that this situation does not happen to our kids, but I think the possibility lurks at the back of our minds at all times.
My daughter was diagnosed with Crohn's disease as an 11-year-old. It was very mild, and she was in remission for a long time. Because she had never had the typical Crohn's symptoms, we all missed the early warning signs of what was happening. The various stresses of being an exchange student caught up with her about mid-March. She was on her mid-trip seminar in Dresden when she began vomiting uncontrollably and had to be hospitalized.
She was surrounded by YFU staff at the seminar, so it was the best possible situation. They took her to the emergency room, helped her fill her prescription, and then sent someone with her to the hospital when it became obvious the medication was not working. A YFU staff person stayed with my daughter for the majority of her hospital stay, where they were able to get her symptoms under control.
We were on vacation during this time and were not checking emails. We had left phone numbers for emergencies, and YFU had these numbers. However, we were never contacted. We do not know if this was YFU's fault or the hotel we were at. We returned home to several messages from our daughter to call her immediately.
After her hospital stay, she was sent home to her host family by bus. She was comfortable doing that by herself. Her host family wanted her to leave Germany immediately, but we asked that they wait until she had a follow-up doctor's appointment and some time to recover before getting on an international flight. The doctor officially recommended that she return home and wrote a letter documenting his decision. Once this decision was relayed to YFU, they asked us (her natural parents) and my daughter to write a letter communicating her wish and our approval to return home. Once they received this documentation, they looked for flights leaving within 2 days. Both families (host and natural) had to approve the flights home, and they were booked.
She was already booked to return to Chicago's O'Hare airport on July 7. YFU made all the travel arrangements, including buying an additional ticket from O'Hare to our nearest airport in Minneapolis. We had hoped to go to Chicago to meet her and pick her up, but there were no reasonable flights at such late notice, and driving down (12 hours round trip) to get her did not seem like a viable option. Having YFU book this additional flight meant that her luggage was checked all the way to Minneapolis (she still had to pick it up and go through customs in Chicago, but she did not have to pay for luggage on an additional flight). We reimbursed YFU $200 for the flight from O'Hare to Minneapolis, which was cheaper than anything we were able to find.
She arrived home safe and (mostly) sound. Even now (a week later), she feels her decision was the best decision for her to have made. YFU offered to find her another host family able to deal with her medical situation, but she was too tired and sick to feel like she could make that option work. Sometimes, you just need to go home.
