Medical emergencies

I have been seeing many med evacs or ships turning around lately due to medical emergencies via people posting on FB. It has made me wonder if there are medical guidelines for persons embarking on a cruise. Perhaps people with chronic medical conditions may have a false sense of the medical facilities on board. I have seen threads of people encouraging people to cruise with issues and I wonder have they truly thought out all the implications? In my understanding, the ship's medical facility are there for unexpected emergencies.

I have seen posts saying oh yes, go on your cruise. I was fine a week after my surgery, etc.

Now for the selfish part - I have worked so hard to put aside money for my upcoming cruise. I have scrimped, saved & done without for this trip. I know there are things beyond our control, and there are true medical emergencies. I have seen a man evacced by helicopter off the coast of Canada. Poor guy had a heart attack, an unexpected emergency. However, I do have an issue with those rolling the dice with their health on a cruise. I personally wouldn't want to put other's vacations at risk due to my decisions. And I hope others would do the same.

So I am wondering why all the medical issues lately - is it an uptick of people rolling the dice or is it just that - unexpected emergencies? Thoughts? Ramblings on a Friday.......

So I am wondering why all the medical issues lately - is it an uptick of people rolling the dice or is it just that - unexpected emergencies? Thoughts? Ramblings on a Friday.......

I would say that's a pretty impossible question to answer without knowing the reasons for each medical issue. And if you ask that on here, people will jump down your throat saying it's none of your business. So I don't think anyone on here will be able to give a true, accurate answer.

So I am wondering why all the medical issues lately - is it an uptick of people rolling the dice or is it just that - unexpected emergencies? Thoughts? Ramblings on a Friday.......

Opposed to this I´d be more interested in the number of the expected emergencies.:confused::rolleyes:

The reason you hear more about it these days are all those social media sites and people seeing the need to post every aspect of their and even more disturbing every aspect of other peoples lifes online.:rolleyes:

Any yep it´s really none of your business.

Sometimes I think people post more about medical emergencies as they had an emergency and didn't have insurance and now want to have others tell them how to get their money back.

I agree it's none of my business if someone decides to sail with a medical problem. It's also not my concern if they don't get insurance. It's a choice we all make and some of us make the wrong ones, but that's their problem, not mine.

Cruises have always been attractive to older, less mobile, less healthy passengers. In fact, in the old days, that was the majority of cruisers. Where else can you take a vacation without driving, stay in the same room the entire time and be fed and catered to? And the ships were not amusement parks as they are today.

I think cruise ships have always had a high percentage of possible medical emergency passengers, we just didn’t have instant access to industry wide catastrophe information like we do now. I believe it’s more a matter of increased awareness as opposed to increased occurrences.

Most medical emergencies are usually unexpected . The person that goes before a doctor allows them to go , is rolling the dice. This type of travel will give the insurance a reason for not paying out.

It's nothing new. Witnessed these Emergencies almost every yr the 30 I've sailed. Back then those that sailed were Newlywed or Nearly Dead, though was more older crowd. But guess could say instead of 500-1100 passengers/crew per ship back then you now have 6-9000 counting crew that it's more likely that this happens.

Common sense would dictate that people maybe check with their medical provider. But, there are a lot of stupid people who lack common sense. And unsurprisingly, a great deal of them seem to enjoy cruising. So yeah, it's gonna happen. My advice? Don't let the stupid people bother you (that goes for life, not just cruising)!

Common sense would dictate that people maybe check with their medical provider. But, there are a lot of stupid people who lack common sense. And unsurprisingly, a great deal of them seem to enjoy cruising. So yeah, it's gonna happen. My advice? Don't let the stupid people bother you (that goes for life, not just cruising)!

Unfortunately, some of those "stupid people" have a direct affect on your vacation.

Besides some of the reason stated above for cruising to be attractive to people with medical conditions I think is the fact that there are medical facilities just a short elevator ride away. Where else can you vacation and have medical help so close by? However, sometimes it also seems like people expect to have the capabilities of the Mass General at the end of that elevator ride. That is where the stupidity really comes into play.

Cruises have always been attractive to older, less mobile, less healthy passengers. In fact, in the old days, that was the majority of cruisers. Where else can you take a vacation without driving, stay in the same room the entire time and be fed and catered to? And the ships were not amusement parks as they are today.

I think cruise ships have always had a high percentage of possible medical emergency passengers, we just didn’t have instant access to industry wide catastrophe information like we do now. I believe it’s more a matter of increased awareness as opposed to increased occurrences.

I'd tend to agree with that. Throw in what for many people might be a year's normal alcohol consumption in one week.

At least the news media hasn't jumped all over it like they do when we get a rash of people "falling off" of ships.

The ships are much bigger, so the odds increase that there will be a medical issue.

Social media is rampant, everyone has a HD video camera on them at all times, there are now multiple 24 hour "news" networks.

People seem to be much more litigious now a days, in the past a cruise line may have bandaged someone up and called it good enough, now they medi-vac them. This is true on land too. When I was a kid and sprained an ankle, it was wrapped and I was sent home and told to ice it. Now, it is wrapped and 6 weeks of physical therapy is scheduled.

Agreed.

An Oasis class ship has 3x the chance of having a medical emergency requiring and evacuation than a small ship.

Ship’s medical personnel are becoming more risk adverse and will declare an emergency more often to avoid litigation.

Depending on the cruise, the average age of a passenger is older. We have been on cruises with a lot of families where the average age is 55. We have been on others where the average age is 67.

The longer the cruise , the average age is higher. This can cause more medical emergencies and deaths. The average World Cruise usually has about five fatalities. Many short cruise don’t have any or medical emergencies.

I have been seeing many med evacs or ships turning around lately due to medical emergencies via people posting on FB. It has made me wonder if there are medical guidelines for persons embarking on a cruise. Perhaps people with chronic medical conditions may have a false sense of the medical facilities on board. I have seen threads of people encouraging people to cruise with issues and I wonder have they truly thought out all the implications? In my understanding, the ship's medical facility are there for unexpected emergencies.

I have seen posts saying oh yes, go on your cruise. I was fine a week after my surgery, etc.

Now for the selfish part - I have worked so hard to put aside money for my upcoming cruise. I have scrimped, saved & done without for this trip. I know there are things beyond our control, and there are true medical emergencies. I have seen a man evacced by helicopter off the coast of Canada. Poor guy had a heart attack, an unexpected emergency. However, I do have an issue with those rolling the dice with their health on a cruise. I personally wouldn't want to put other's vacations at risk due to my decisions. And I hope others would do the same.

So I am wondering why all the medical issues lately - is it an uptick of people rolling the dice or is it just that - unexpected emergencies? Thoughts? Ramblings on a Friday.......

These events are not new. These occurrences have happened since the beginning of cruising. The fact that everyone has a smart phone with a camera and WiFi onboard and stay connected to social media....the events are available in “real time” so are just more evident than in past times.

Ok I'm bored let's go:

790,000 heart attacks in the US per year per AHA

population is 325.7 million, so that is about 1 heart attack per 412 people

Per cruise industry overview, 12 million people from North America cruised in 2016

So we would expect 29,126 heart attacks over the course of the year, or about 80 per day throughout the entire industry

So I am forced to conclude that the cruising population is actually far healthier than the general, since this seems very high.

There is a reason there is a morgue on the ship. People die on cruises. It happens and always has.

I think we have seen deaths and/or somebody being helicoptered off on every cruise we have taken. I can't say it has made any impact or inconvenience to us at all.

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I think we have seen deaths and/or somebody being helicoptered off on every cruise we have taken. I can't say it has made any impact or inconvenience to us at all.

 

 

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I was actually told by a crew member on Allure that they actually have an average of 4-5 deaths per cruise. Of course that number is give or take but it seems to happen on most sailings.

I was actually told by a crew member on Allure that they actually have an average of 4-5 deaths per cruise. Of course that number is give or take but it seems to happen on most sailings.

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I could think of a worse way to go as long as it's quick and painless.

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As others have stated, most medical emergencies are unexpected. I have a chronic condition, MS, and I’ve been in remission for over two years. Even though I run marathons, get my scheduled infusions, and do everything I can to stay healthy, I could relapse at any time. I’m paying for a vacation too. Those with chronic conditions shouldn’t stay home so as to avoid the slight possibility of inconvenience to other passengers.

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I could think of a worse way to go as long as it's quick and painless.

 

 

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As others have stated, most medical emergencies are unexpected. I have a chronic condition, MS, and I’ve been in remission for over two years. Even though I run marathons, get my scheduled infusions, and do everything I can to stay healthy, I could relapse at any time. I’m paying for a vacation too. Those with chronic conditions shouldn’t stay home so as to avoid the slight possibility of inconvenience to other passengers.

 

 

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I'm not going to opine, but give you the facts of what happened to my wife and her sisters just last night.

They were on a Panama Canal cruise on HAL, returning to Port Everglades. Just departed Puerto Limon and one of the sisters became incoherent. She's diabetic. They went down to see the doc, who was afraid it was a stroke so the ship turned around to Costa Rica (they faced two sea days ahead).

HAL arranged for ambulances: one ground ambulance to take her to the Puerto Limon airstrip to wait for an air ambulance, and then another ground ambulance at San Jose to take her to the hospital.

The hospital asked for a $5,000.00 deposit or credit card guarantee to begin treatment. We have no idea who paid for the air ambulance, but are afraid the bill is coming.

She's at the ICU in a San Jose hospital, and we're still trying to figure out what happened to her and how are we getting her back to the U.S. The State Department and her church, which happens to have a branch in Costa Rica, have been mobilized and are providing adequate assistance.

Now, Costa Rica is not the worst place in the world to have a medical emergency. But still, imagine the ordeal we/they are going through and I'm not even talking about the money yet.

GET THAT TRAVEL INSURANCE IF YOU'RE GOING ANYWHERE WERE YOUR MEDICAL INSURANCE DOESN'T COVER YOU!

I'm not going to opine, but give you the facts of what happened to my wife and her sisters just last night.

 

They were on a Panama Canal cruise on HAL, returning to Port Everglades. Just departed Puerto Limon and one of the sisters became incoherent. She's diabetic. They went down to see the doc, who was afraid it was a stroke so the ship turned around to Costa Rica (they faced two sea days ahead).

 

HAL arranged for ambulances: one ground ambulance to take her to the Puerto Limon airstrip to wait for an air ambulance, and then another ground ambulance at San Jose to take her to the hospital.

 

The hospital asked for a $5,000.00 deposit or credit card guarantee to begin treatment. We have no idea who paid for the air ambulance, but are afraid the bill is coming.

 

She's at the ICU in a San Jose hospital, and we're still trying to figure out what happened to her and how are we getting her back to the U.S. The State Department and her church, which happens to have a branch in Costa Rica, have been mobilized and are providing adequate assistance.

 

Now, Costa Rica is not the worst place in the world to have a medical emergency. But still, imagine the ordeal we/they are going through and I'm not even talking about the money yet.

 

GET THAT TRAVEL INSURANCE IF YOU'RE GOING ANYWHERE WERE YOUR MEDICAL INSURANCE DOESN'T COVER YOU!

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