14 Dec Disability Insurance Case Study – Bakouris Family
Bakouris Family Disability Insurance Case Study: A Living Miracle
At 27, life was falling into place for Dore Bakouris. She was newly married, had a 1-year-old son and had just returned to work. Then she started suffering from severe headaches. Given that she had no previous health issues, she went to the emergency room and got a CT scan. Doctors gave her the devastating news that she had a brain tumor.
Within a week, Dore had surgery to remove what was thought to be an egg-sized tumor, but it turned out to be a cavernous angioma—a malformation of blood vessels that had started to bleed, putting pressure on her brain. Doctors said if they had waited another day, they would have lost her. Thankfully Dore survived, but she did lose her right peripheral vision and had cognitive impairments. They discovered later she had also suffered a stroke.
Thankfully Dore had done insurance planning at a young age, given her husband, Steven, was their insurance professional. Dore had disability insurance, which replaced a portion of her income. That meant there wasn’t the financial strain of going from a two-income household to one. She also had critical illness insurance, which paid out a lump sum, due to her having suffered a stroke. This money allowed them to move closer to family. That gave Dore the support she needed, since she could no longer drive and had an active toddler. “This insurance has been a miracle for us,” she says. “It’s helped us in ways I didn’t think were possible.”
Steven adds that people expect something like this to happen when you’re old or to “other” people. “I want to express how important it is to have this kind of planning in place,” he says. “Your ability to generate income is your largest asset, if you can’t work, where does that leave everything else?”
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Bakouris Family Disability Insurance Case Study – Video Transcription
Steven (Father and Insurance Professional): Dore and I have two sons. Our oldest is Burk and our youngest is Talon. And they are spirited kids.
Dore is fantastic. She is the most wonderful person that I know.
So when we first got married, as part of me being in the industry, we had life insurance, critical illness insurance, and disability insurance in place. Ironically enough, the first claim I paid out to a client for critical illness or disability insurance was my wife.
Not long after my son Burk turned one, Dore started experiencing headaches and they got quite severe. And she was diagnosed with a brain tumor and the only option we had was to do surgery.
It was a four hour surgery. The neurosurgeon, he says, “Well it wasn’t what we thought it was. It wasn’t a brain tumor, it was a cavernous angioma – the malformation of blood vessels.” And in Dore’s situation they started to bleed.
So once Dore was released she was part of a rehabilitation program. And that’s when we discovered that she had suffered a stroke and lost her right peripheral vision in both eyes. Now she couldn’t drive anymore. So being 27 years old and giving up your independence was also very crushing and, you know, emotionally difficult.
I’m grateful every day that she’s here. She had some cognitive issues that came up through the process. I now have to help Dore with certain things that she needs with something simple as going for groceries.
Dore (Wife): You asked me how was the insurance important? It was a miracle for us.
Steven: So having the disability insurance helped to replace a portion of her income. And also the critical illness paid a lump sum that helped us to ease any other financial stress. Helped us to move closer to family so that we could have the support we needed.
Dore: It gave us peace of mind to have the insurance in place when we needed it the most. And for that, I’ll be forever grateful.