Passenger Med-Evac'd from Triumph

[dmfriedman]

Yesterday (Friday, 7/29/05), as we were sailing back from Halifax to New York on our sea day, the ship was slowed to a crawl as we waited for a Coast Guard helicopter to arrive to medevac a passenger off the ship due to a medical emergency.

 

The cruise director (Matt) shared what little information he could (considering health regulations), and the passengers crowded the outer decks to watch a (fortunately) very rare occurence of a helicopter picking up a passenger from a moving ship.

 

Side note: I'm going to skip writing a review of the cruise itself and let my fellow Cruise Critic folk share their stories with you. I seem to be one of the few who truly hated this trip, and I think the issues I had were so far out of the ordinary that it's not worth concerning anyone else over them. Needless to say, I'll still be cruising Carnival in the next few months.

[dpalmquist]

sorry about your bad time. keep cruising!:o

[MAGNUM PI]

Apparently these medical emergencies, are not that rare. That's why travel insurance is a must!

 

On our February Serenade Of The Seas cruise, there was an incident requiring medical evacuation. An elderly person fell down, and needed to be removed from the ship. On our return to San Juan, we made an unscheduled stop by St Kitts. A small Coast Guard boat came alone side, and transported the person, to St Kitts.

 

A crew member advised that it is a regular occurrence, for a passenger to have to be transported from the ship, for medical reasons.

[PaigeM]

When we were on the triumph a few years ago, someone had a heart attack and had to be helicoptered off. it was amazing to watch.

[coolestwife]

When we were on the Pride in Oct. '03 we had an aft cabin right below the lido deck and one night (early morning) I hear all this noise above us...thumping and creaking of the deck, etc. Then I heard a helicopter and I jumped out of bed to look out the window and there was the helicopter flying off towards San Diego...I was the coolest thing!!! ( I love helicopters :p ) Anyway, in the morning my DH didn't believe me at first, then I showed him the ship's course on the TV and the CD mentionded briefly later that day that we had to go in closer to San Diego because someone needed to be lifted to the hospital (heart attack I think). It was very sad, but the Helicopter experience I not one I will soon forget!

[MadScientist Eric]

Must be interesting to watch! Where do the helicopters land? Not on the funnel deck I hope!

[arnieslady]

we watched one from the zenith 2 years ago, chopper did not land. they hovered above the stern, lowered a crewman with basket stretcher thing, continued hovering apprx 5-6 minutes, next thing they are hoisting basket up with unfortunate cruiser, lower line back to ship's deck, within 1 minute hoisting crewman with another pax straddling his lap to chopper, in they go, off goes the chopper.

 

a second chopper circled the ship at higher altitude the entire time, when chopper made the evac, he pulled off stern and away he went, second one came in close, circled very close, and trailed out behind first, very cool yet very unfortunate. It was the last night at sea.

[medalian1]

Must be interesting to watch! Where do the helicopters land? Not on the funnel deck I hope!

 

On the topless deck :D

[luvdale]

I have been on 2 cruises where they had to use a helicopter for a passenger that had a medical emergency. The first time they lifted the passenger in a basket to the helicopter. The second time they hovered beside the ship and took the passenger off the ship. It is an amazing site to see, but very dangerous. They are very good pilots to be able to do this.

[Z'Loth]

Sorry, no helicopter evacuations, but on the last cruise I was on, we had to make a emergency stop at Cabo San Lucas because two passengers had to be medically evacuated off the ship. (One of them is a cruise critic sister). I learned later that the other passenger was told-point blank-that he would not make it back up to San Diego, and there are no good hospitals between Cabo and San Diego.

 

Ironically, we had the best sunsets of the cruise. It also messed up the dining room schedule, but it was quite understandable.

[BlueHerons]

Sorry' date=' no helicopter evacuations, but on the last cruise I was on, we had to make a emergency stop at Cabo San Lucas because two passengers had to be medically evacuated off the ship. (One of them is a cruise critic sister). [b']I learned later that the other passenger was told-point blank-that he would not make it back up to San Diego[/b], and there are no good hospitals between Cabo and San Diego.

 

.

 

Out of curiousity, who told you this? I can't imagine a trained emergency professional would tell a sick passenger that they would not make it to another port.

[BlueHerons]

Sorry' date=' no helicopter evacuations, but on the last cruise I was on, we had to make a emergency stop at Cabo San Lucas because two passengers had to be medically evacuated off the ship. (One of them is a cruise critic sister). [b']I learned later that the other passenger was told-point blank-that he would not make it back up to San Diego[/b], and there are no good hospitals between Cabo and San Diego.

 

.

 

Out of curiousity, who told you this? I can't imagine a trained emergency professional would tell a sick passenger that they would not make it to another hospital.

[ladycaveat]

When we were on the Pride in Oct. '03 we had an aft cabin right below the lido deck and one night (early morning) I hear all this noise above us...thumping and creaking of the deck, etc. Then I heard a helicopter and I jumped out of bed to look out the window and there was the helicopter flying off towards San Diego...I was the coolest thing!!! ( I love helicopters :p ) Anyway, in the morning my DH didn't believe me at first, then I showed him the ship's course on the TV and the CD mentionded briefly later that day that we had to go in closer to San Diego because someone needed to be lifted to the hospital (heart attack I think). It was very sad, but the Helicopter experience I not one I will soon forget!

 

I love it that you love helicopters . . . me too. My son flies the HH65 Dolphin for the Coast Guard (Air Station Miami) and believe me . . . medi vacs off of cruise ships are not as rare as one would think . . . especially in the Caribbean. I actually got to see one when I was on the Galaxy in 2003. Hearing that "wosh wosh" and seeing that great big Coast Guard helicopter gave me cold chills. Thankfully, the gentleman who was taken off our ship was okay (it too was a possible heart attack).

[Z'Loth]

Out of curiousity, who told you this? I can't imagine a trained emergency professional would tell a sick passenger that they would not make it to another hospital.

It was one of the relatives of the evacuated passenger (not the CC sister) who stayed on board ship. It was the following day, and both she and I were returning tuxes and were just waiting outside the formal rental shop.

 

And, yes, I can imagine not being able to make it to another hospital...especially along Baja California.

[justloud]

I was on the Triumph also when this happened. It was an amazing site to see, those coast guard pilots are GREAT!!! Travelers insurance would cover them taking you off the boat this way and I hear it is very pricey, like 15 grand. This man and his family are in our thought and hope all worked out for the best for them.

[ladycaveat]

I was on the Triumph also when this happened. It was an amazing site to see, those coast guard pilots are GREAT!!! Travelers insurance would cover them taking you off the boat this way and I hear it is very pricey, like 15 grand. This man and his family are in our thought and hope all worked out for the best for them.

 

Sorry . . . already posted once on this site but when someone says what you just did . . . "Coast Guard pilots are GREAT" . . . makes my buttons pop. And to think . . . when my son told me (after getting a degree in architecture) that he'd just been accepted into OCS (Officer Candidate School) with the Coast Guard . . . the first thing I said was, "I spent a fortune putting you through college to be an architect . . . and you want to be a lifeguard?!!! Needless to say . . . he loves what he does and I love him for doing what he loves. Again, sorry . . . but those that fly for the Coast Guard really are a very special bunch of guys . . . :)

[rubyblue]

See Next Post - I'm having trouble with my computer!:confused:

[rubyblue]

We were also on the Triumph last week. We were able to watch the helicopter approach from our cabin on the verandah deck. I give those men great credit for coming out like that. I don't know how they were able to get the person off. Any idea if the person was a man or a woman? We heard 2 different stories.

 

Dave - you were not the only one who did not have a completely enjoyable trip. We and several others we met had problems during the cruise. Unlike you, we don't think we'll cruise Carnival again anytime soon.