Medical emergencies on the rise?

[John&LaLa]

Does anyone else feel that diverting the ships for medical emergencies is on the rise? Freedom diverted to Nassau yesterday and had to skip St Thomas due to the delay. They are now in San Juan for the evening before heading off to St Martin tomorrow. I feel for those involved, but it seems to be commonplace these days. My wife was on the Independence TA this May and they were diverted to Nassau as well. Does Nassau have world class medical care that I don't know about. :rolleyes: BTW, they have a helipad, why don't they fly them off and stay on course? I doubt it was included just for folks to have a sail away party. Anyway, can we hear from others who have had to divert in the past year. Or tell me I'm insensitive if you'd like.

[WupperAV]

They probably couldn't get a helicopter and pilot qualified to land on a ship. It is very dangerous and could be more costly in lives than it saves. Besides, make the best of diversions. Maybe for you someday.

[akcruz]

I think two things play into this.

 

First the population is definitely aging and more are falling into the older years. Many of which have probably been cruising for years and don't want to give it up.

 

Second, cruising is becoming more mainstream. Not long ago it was much more of a luxury to take a cruise. Now it is just another option. The more people onboard each week, the more likely you will find someone with a health concern.

[setsail]

Bigger ships, more people, more chances

[Merion_Mom]

I think two things play into this.

 

First the population is definitely aging and more are falling into the older years. Many of which have probably been cruising for years and don't want to give it up.

 

Second, cruising is becoming more mainstream. Not long ago it was much more of a luxury to take a cruise. Now it is just another option. The more people onboard each week, the more likely you will find someone with a health concern.

 

I think that I agree with both of these, and would also add that ALL "companies" are becoming more cognizant of liability issues and thus err on the side of caution.

[chengkp75]

Does anyone else feel that diverting the ships for medical emergencies is on the rise? Freedom diverted to Nassau yesterday and had to skip St Thomas due to the delay. They are now in San Juan for the evening before heading off to St Martin tomorrow. I feel for those involved, but it seems to be commonplace these days. My wife was on the Independence TA this May and they were diverted to Nassau as well. Does Nassau have world class medical care that I don't know about. :rolleyes: BTW, they have a helipad, why don't they fly them off and stay on course? I doubt it was included just for folks to have a sail away party. Anyway, can we hear from others who have had to divert in the past year. Or tell me I'm insensitive if you'd like.

 

In most cases, a SAR helicopter will not be able to land on the ship, so it would be a winch operation. This is extremely dangerous for both the crew and the patient, so it is only done when the patient's condition doesn't warrant the time needed to divert to a port. Private lifeflight pilots are generally not trained to do at sea winch evacuations, or even landings (there is the motion of the vessel while attempting to land, obstructions, and the ever present updraft from the exhausts (not to mention the CO2 in the exhaust which is bad for both pilot and engines), so most of this is restricted to government or military pilots (USCG, for instance), and while the Coasties are always ready to go out, they try to limit it to real, real, emergencies. I know the USCG is considering charging for these evacuations, and most smaller countries already do. You don't think the cruise line will swallow the cost of a helicopter evacuation do you? Nope, that will be passed to the patient.

[xxoocruiser]

Does anyone else feel that diverting the ships for medical emergencies is on the rise?

 

Probably not any more than the number of planes that get diverted for Medical Emergencies that you don't hear about.

[Fat Paul]

Law of averages.

[cb at sea]

More folks in bad health are cruising.

[matj2000]

I would say large ships with many passengers.

 

And large population of unhealthy people.

 

Many of these would be from existing conditions or lack of compliance by the person of interest.

 

Unfortunately they do not have medical screening...

[Ashland]

I was recently on a cruise that had to return to Nassau after leaving the port...I was told that it would depend on how far away the ship had gotten would also be a determining factor. We have also seen (twice) a coast guard helicopter land onboard and take a patient when we were doing northbounds in Alaska. View from my DD #8500 FOV cabin on Radiance...amazing. :eek:

[OCruisers]

Maybe we just hear about it more now than we once did.

LuLu

[SeagoingMom]

Does anyone else feel that diverting the ships for medical emergencies is on the rise? Freedom diverted to Nassau yesterday and had to skip St Thomas due to the delay. They are now in San Juan for the evening before heading off to St Martin tomorrow. I feel for those involved, but it seems to be commonplace these days. My wife was on the Independence TA this May and they were diverted to Nassau as well. Does Nassau have world class medical care that I don't know about. :rolleyes: BTW, they have a helipad, why don't they fly them off and stay on course? I doubt it was included just for folks to have a sail away party. Anyway, can we hear from others who have had to divert in the past year. Or tell me I'm insensitive if you'd like.

I have to wonder if it is just because your wife has been on a ship where this happened that you became more conscious of these incidents, and therefore presume they are increasing in frequency. Perhaps it is just that you now notice -- they may have been happening at the same pace for years.

[DaNana]

In most cases, a SAR helicopter will not be able to land on the ship, so it would be a winch operation. This is extremely dangerous for both the crew and the patient, so it is only done when the patient's condition doesn't warrant the time needed to divert to a port. Private lifeflight pilots are generally not trained to do at sea winch evacuations, or even landings (there is the motion of the vessel while attempting to land, obstructions, and the ever present updraft from the exhausts (not to mention the CO2 in the exhaust which is bad for both pilot and engines), so most of this is restricted to government or military pilots (USCG, for instance), and while the Coasties are always ready to go out, they try to limit it to real, real, emergencies. I know the USCG is considering charging for these evacuations, and most smaller countries already do. You don't think the cruise line will swallow the cost of a helicopter evacuation do you? Nope, that will be passed to the patient.

 

Not thinking these would be SAR but medical. This would be a Coast Guard or similar entity from a country. I work at a hospital that as a heli pad that really looks as small or smaller than the ones on the ship. I do agree some countries including the US would charge for the transfer. Good reason to have travel insurance.

[Janet524]

Bigger ships, more people, more social media = more information about emergencies put out there. Sometimes I think it's not necessarily a case of more "incidents" per capita, but rather more of the "incidents" are being made public.

[chengkp75]

Not thinking these would be SAR but medical. This would be a Coast Guard or similar entity from a country. I work at a hospital that as a heli pad that really looks as small or smaller than the ones on the ship. I do agree some countries including the US would charge for the transfer. Good reason to have travel insurance.

 

All USCG medical evacuations are done by SAR personnel, using SAR equipment (like the Hercules aircraft that dropped the blood to the Carnival Miracle). It's the blanket term for what they do. While your hospital helipad may be smaller than the ones on the ship, they are designed without obstructions above the helipad for quite some distance, unlike ships, which have bulwarks, railings, sports nets, or superstructure close by. Also, most lifeflight helicopters have smaller rotor diameter than the long range SAR helicopters operated by the Coast Guard or military, so the obstruction free zone needs to be bigger on ships. I don't think I've ever heard of a USCG helicopter landing on any ship for a medical evacuation. Recently, I heard about a Canadian Forces helo landing on a cruise ship, but this was a smaller Huey type, if I remember right.

Edited September 25, 2014 by chengkp75

[Thetrail]

Does anyone else feel that diverting the ships for medical emergencies is on the rise? Freedom diverted to Nassau yesterday and had to skip St Thomas due to the delay. They are now in San Juan for the evening before heading off to St Martin tomorrow. I feel for those involved, but it seems to be commonplace these days. My wife was on the Independence TA this May and they were diverted to Nassau as well. Does Nassau have world class medical care that I don't know about. :rolleyes: BTW, they have a helipad, why don't they fly them off and stay on course? I doubt it was included just for folks to have a sail away party. Anyway, can we hear from others who have had to divert in the past year. Or tell me I'm insensitive if you'd like.

41 cruises and never once have been diverted for a medical emergency.

[A&L_Ont]

We are in Nassau this week at Sandals and have enjoyed the ship's coming and going from port. The other night an RCI ship came in around 6:30pm and left within an hour. I checked a ships in port listing and no RC was scheduled for that day at all, let alone for an hour. Who knows why it was in port but a medical situation was the first thing that came to mind.

 

I tried to post a photo of the ship coming in but after cropping I still couldn't get it to work.

 

The all inclusive is nice but not the same as cruising. It is still better than work.

[Grannycb]

It's been happening for years. We are on a social media where we here about it more easily.

[Homosassa]

You just hear about it more now.

 

I was on a cruise in 1985 where there was a outbreak of flu on board. The cruise line flew in more medical staff to handles the illness. There were also 4 deaths on board (elderly succumbing to illness). There were no news reports on this.

 

Nowadays there would be headlines screaming "Death ship" and interviews with passengers demanding their next 5 cruises free (in the Owner's suite).

[OCruisers]

It's been happening for years. We are on a social media where we hear about it more easily.

 

Yes, very true.

LuLu

[norcalemt02]

They have all those small boats hanging on the side just load the patient a doctor and a nurse with a driver and off to the pier. Why compromise everyone vacation

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[chengkp75]

They have all those small boats hanging on the side just load the patient a doctor and a nurse with a driver and off to the pier. Why compromise everyone vacation

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

Hopefully tongue in cheek?

[xxHadleyxx]

We've been on three ships that were diverted for a medical emergency. The first was in 2000 and it involved a very fast full turn to get the ship back to Cozumel.

 

Second was 1 to 2 year later and we were diverted back to Cape Canaveral shortly after sail away.

 

Third was on the Oasis TA, we went about 30 off course to take a patient off near Bermuda (we did not dock, the patient was taken off in a boat when we got near). There was also a call for people with blood donor cards and a certain blood type later on in the cruise.

 

All in all, I do not think it is increasing at all (other than bigger ships do have more passengers and crew, which means the same percentage of people could have an issue but a ship is more likely to have an emergency onboard).

 

And I cannot imagine thinking of my vacation being impacted in such a situation! My concerns are worry, worry, worry for the patient and possibly a bit of interest in seeing how it all works.

 

I do wish we had had some follow up announcement of how the patients were doing on Oasis. On my first two cruises that were diverted we WERE updated later in the cruise, which was nice.

[VAL57SMITH]

I was on a cruise a couple of years ago and believe we were right off the coast of North Carolina/ Virginia when the Coast Guard came to evacuate a sick person. There was no helipad on the ship. They came down in a bucket and brought the elderly person up in the bucket. Hours before the Coast Guard even arrived, we were not allowed in the open aft areas. They had to put all the folding chairs away, etc. We were all told to go to midship or forward. The wind from the helicopter blew out one of the glass showers by the pool. Thankfully it was a beautiful, calm sea day.