Medical emergency in the South Pacific

[Ole Faithful]

Not everyone should take a cruise. Judgement comes into play, but then, in this day and age, common sense is an uncommon trait. It is selfish, in my opinion, to travel with a critical medical condition unknown to the medical staff.

 

I'm over 65, and before I undertake a long trip to a foreign port or country, I visit my MD two months or so in advance for my annual checkup and make an appointment with my dentist so anything found can be corrected well before the trip.

 

I'm sure there would be an outcry, but I wouldn't mind if certain unique cruise destinations required a medical certificate of fitness before allowing passengers to board. All passengers are impacted by the illness of one.

 

Perhaps flying to the desired destination rather than cruising in a remote part of the world would be more prudent.

[msmoger]

There is nothing wrong with asking the question "what would happen if?"

 

 

 

IMO -the OP is being very responsible for asking the question. It is now up to them if they want to proceed with the cruise after being better informed.

 

 

 

I think we all know someone in the 20-40's with no health history to have had a freak medical incident happen. Anyone can become sick.

 

 

 

I didn't say or infer there was anything wrong with asking the question. I was simply offering a different perspective.

 

 

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[CalgaryMac]

We have purchased medical insurance for our future cruise. It includes transportation to medical facilities in Canada. I know from the insurance process that the company requires 90 day stability from medical issues (e,g, surgery, strokes, medication changes, etc.). We delayed our cruise as my partner is having carpal tunnel release surgery and won't be 90 days clear until about May or June. We are cautious as we couldn't manage uninsured medical issues.

 

I have preconditions so that can also complicate things.

 

At any rate, don't forget to get health insurance!

 

R

[Thrak]

We're doing the 28 day LA/Hawaii/South Pacific cruise in October. We're not "old" but will be 64 and 65 (turning 66 the day after the cruise ends) and do have concerns of this type as one never knows what will happen. We have the Princess insurance and will also be purchasing a MedjetAssist policy (which will cover our upcoming land trip (California to Montana and then up through Canada and Alaska to the end of the Alcan Hghway and back home again) , the 28 South Pacific cruise, and also our 14 day Circle Caribbean cruise next year. Since the policy covers a full year from date of purchase we will be able to cover all 3 activities in a single one year policy. MedjetAssist doesn't care if evacuation is "medically necessary" or if you "just want" to be treated at your own local hospital. Either way they will transport you. That's a lot of peace of mind for $395

 

Yes, the ship may well be "4 days from anywhere" when a medical issue arises - and given the average age of passengers on a cruise of this length it's likely that some medical issues of various seriousness will arise - but one can also be run down in a parking lot near home. Life is full of uncertainty and we can't live in fear of what "might" happen. The best one can do is to take steps to help minimize the impact if something does go wrong.

[cr8tiv1]

They were able to evacuate a person on an Antarctic cruise a couple of weeks ago. Also, I noticed that the bows of some cruise ships have a helipad. I just would want to make sure I had really good travel insurance!

 

 

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That could have been Senator Neil Armstrong. Unfortunately, he did not make it out of the hospital after being flown "home".

 

Hawaii is the most isolated place in the world. About 2,500 miles from any land mass. Even if you were to take a trip to Hawaii, you would experience 5 days at sea with no means of medi-vac unless you were close to Hilo or the West Coast. There have been many medical emergencies on long voyages. Partly due to the age of the passengers on these longer voyages.

 

As another poster suggested, maybe cruises with many sea days are not for the OP.

[geocruiser]

This happen on Princes a few years back

 

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/ChristmasCountdown/story?id=4018440

[AVCruzers]

I was on the 28 day cruise last fall on the CROWN and I can report nothing but high regards for the professionalism of the medical staff both the doctors and nurses. I was fine for the first three weeks but I began to suffer the symptoms of a heart attack or stroke. I ended up having to stay in their medical center overnight with lots tests/EKG's every 2-3 hours. By morning, I was finally released with a $4300 bill. Being on Medicare which of course pays nothing, I was lucky that my supplementary insurance has some foreign travel benefits so it paid $3000. Then I sent all that information to Aon Affinity which is the Princess insurance and just last week, they paid the final $1300. It just took awhile for all the paperwork to get to all the offices. Upon being released, I asked for copies of all tests and my cardiologist was impressed with what they gave me. I have never taken that Medjet Assist policy that others have discussed but think we might consider that for future cruises. On a prior RUBY cruise, my supplementary didn't pay anything (possibility related to my deductible at the time) but Aon Affinity paid the entire bill (much less that the fall $4300 bill). Don't travel w/o the insurance!!!

[donswife]

We visited the medical center on our IST, and the nurse told us that there is a morgue on the ship, and it is frequently used. My friend's elderly grandfather died peacefully while on a cruise. Just didn't wake up one day.

[Kartgv]

We visited the medical center on our IST, and the nurse told us that there is a morgue on the ship, and it is frequently used. My friend's elderly grandfather died peacefully while on a cruise. Just didn't wake up one day.

 

Now that's how I want to go - can't think of a better way.

[mevs904]

I think that the OP is very prudent to be asking questions about a lengthy trans-Pacific cruise. Although we are both in good health we have decided that trans-ocean cruises are not for us. In addition to the possibility of not being accessible for medical evacuation, the idea of 6-8 at sea days is not attractive to us. We just completed a Southern Caribbean cruise with 3 at sea days and loved everyone of them. Eight days could get tedious for us so we will continue to fly to our embarkation ports.

On another topic, a passenger experienced a medical emergency during our recent cruise and the captain made a general announcement during dinner asking for blood donors. Later in the evening the cruise Director made an announcement at the end of the production telling the audience that although he didn't have specifics he wanted us to know that many passengers had come forward to donate blood and the ill passenger was showing improvement. The announcement was perfect. Throughout the theatre the passengers were just relieved to hear that the person was being helped, they didn't need any specifics. The next day the passenger was removed by ambulance from Princess Cays and the passenger was flown home. The situation was more interesting to us because earlier in the day of the incident we had taken the Ultimate Ship's Tour and gone to the medical center. The chief doctor told us that there were actually 3 doctors on the ship and that they actually had an intensive care unit. He also mentioned that there were 4 crew members in different parts of the ship with AEDs to be able to respond more quickly to a heart-related emergency. Finally, he also mentioned that they could do a helicopter extraction at sea, but we're very cautious in making that decision due to the possibility of danger to the helicopter crew and ship's passengers.

[Wehwalt]

On a Holland America cruse a few years ago I met and was chatting with one of the nurses on the ship (a contract nurse) and we were talking about this subject. She said she was amazed at the number of people who are not in good health and who take cruises with many sea days in a row. She specifically said that in the South Pacific there are times where you are days from land and medical emergencies arise which there is really nothing the on board medical staff can do anything about. She also said the hospitals in the South Pacific are not the quality most of us are used to.

 

I broke my arm in Tahiti, ashore from the PP three years ago. The hospital was brand new and pretty good, but any other island would have been pretty bad. I didn't have any qualms about letting them operate (which ultimately they did not do). I had the good sense to break it near the only decent hospital we passed in 17 days from Lima to Auckland. I made a point of going back to the island on the same ship, fully recovered, eight months later.

[colonialinnkeeper]

In late March, 2003 we took a cruise on the Statendam (IIRC) to Hawaii. On our way back mid-Pacific three passengers were flown out by helicopter. Two helicopters and two C-130's (for refueling) had been sent. The passengers were lifted by Stokes baskets into the helicopters. When we arrived back to San Diego, we read about the evacuation and that the passengers had made it alive. It made for some very interesting photos for our album.

Edited February 4, 2017 by colonialinnkeeper

[capriccio]

That could have been Senator Neil Armstrong. Unfortunately, he did not make it out of the hospital after being flown "home".

 

I think you have your astronauts and post-NASA careers confused. Buzz Aldrin recently fell ill in Antarctica and was evacuated. He seems to have made a full recovery because there was a story on NPR this week (and in lots of other places) about him appearing on the runway during NYC Fashion Week with Bill Nye, the science guy!

 

Neil Armstrong, a professor in his post-NASA career, died in 2012. John Glenn, who died in December 2016, was a Senator from Ohio for 24 years.

 

I realize this has nothing to do with cruising but these guys were my heroes as a child...

[nellydean]

Thanks for all the replies, very enlightening!

 

Insurance was never an issue, never travel without it. It was simply a question of logistics in getting to a suitable medical facility should it be necessary. In this regard, it was interesting-and reassuring - to read that princess ships have such good facilities and that there is the ability to stabilise a patient and the willingness to go the extra mile (or should that be fathom?!) and find a way of getting a passenger to a land hospital By any means possible. Obviously I accept that, inspite of best efforts, people do still die on ships.

 

Although I was not basing my concern on anything medically relevant at the moment, there was a medical reason I asked it, and that was because a year ago I had my gallbladder out, a few months after an attack out of the blue. Surgery fine, but 6 weeks later I was back in hospital with the same acute symptoms, due to two stones escaping said gallbladder during the op and lodging in my bile duct. Hopefully, won't happen ever again but, due to the amount of agonising pain this caused, and the potential for a life-threatening situation to develop relatively quickly, I thought it a pertinent question to pose.

 

After reading all the informative replies, I am reassured that I would undertake such a cruise after all, safe in the knowledge that I would probably be ok if an emergency arose. However, I have decided not to go ahead with the particular cruise we were looking at (28 day from LA in October) simply due to the number of sea days (20), especially the 8 days coming back from Moorea (not Tahiti as I said). Hawaii and the SP are regions I've wanted to visit for decades, so the desire remains, But I think we will need to look for an itinerary that has fewer sea days between ports. NCL have a super one in October that fits the bill, except it's too long for us to be away.

 

As for the poster who suggested cruising wasn't for us, too late! We've been cruising since 1999 and love it - just not the sea days too much :) we did a Transatlantic to NY on the QM2 in her inaugural year, the most beautiful ship I've been on but, by day 4, I was desperate to see land!

 

Anyway, heading to the Med and Canaries in April, so all is not lost :)

 

Thanks again for your replies. Hope the thread proves helpful to others contemplating a similar cruise.

[cr8tiv1]

I think you have your astronauts and post-NASA careers confused. Buzz Aldrin recently fell ill in Antarctica and was evacuated. He seems to have made a full recovery because there was a story on NPR this week (and in lots of other places) about him appearing on the runway during NYC Fashion Week with Bill Nye, the science guy!

 

Neil Armstrong, a professor in his post-NASA career, died in 2012. John Glenn, who died in December 2016, was a Senator from Ohio for 24 years.

 

I realize this has nothing to do with cruising but these guys were my heroes as a child...

 

I stand corrected. You are correct. I was away on a short vacation and only heard snippets. Senior Moment...I just knew it was an astronaut who was airlifted and an astronaut had passed. Sorry for the confusion and feeding into to Alternative Facts, I should have asked Google before posting. Thanks for clarifying this for everyone.

 

http://www.geekwire.com/2016/buzz-aldrin-south-pole-john-glenn/

[caber]

Just a mention, we in the UK are not allowed to book a Princess cruise without listing our insurance company. I have just booked a HAL cruise and there is no mention of insurance details on the personaliser.

 

We had a cruise on Sea Princess a few years ago which involved a helicopter emergency and a man overboard, where we circled for a full day looking,for this person. We missed a port but these are the sort of things you can come up against on a cruise.

[colonialinnkeeper]

I was curious trying to remember more of the details of the evacuation and found this article on the internet. Might explain a little more of the operation needed for these ill passengers.

 

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2003/april2/rescue-42.html

[joybook]

My goodness. If that really is a worry for you don't go on the cruise. Cruises are for enjoying yourself - not worrying about things that may never happen.

[glg]

coming back from Moorea (not Tahiti as I said)

 

it's only 12 miles, not very far off ;)

[jagsfan]

Anyone remember the Norway? The captain told me emergency open heart surgery was done and the patient survived. That must have been a frightening experience for everyone.

Unless things have changed, Princess has experienced doctors who are employees, not doctors looking for paid vacations which can be the case on some other lines.

 

 

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[caribill]

Anyone remember the Norway? The captain told me emergency open heart surgery was done and the patient survived. That must have been a frightening experience for everyone.

Unless things have changed, Princess has experienced doctors who are employees, not doctors looking for paid vacations which can be the case on some other lines.

 

 

 

The Princess doctors usually can not do any operation more serious than an appendectomy.

[easyboy]

My goodness. If that really is a worry for you don't go on the cruise. Cruises are for enjoying yourself - not worrying about things that may never happen.

Agree. Should be aware of possible medical emergencies, but should not be a worry. It is the concern of the cruise line for its thousands of passengers.

[Host Jazzbeau]

Haven't read every post but did search this thread. If you have a serious medical emergency, even the best trip insurance will only get you from the ship to the nearest hospital -- where you will be at the mercy of the hospital doctors and your insurance company for further decisions. If you want to remain in control of your treatment, it is vital that you join MedJet Assist -- they will evacuate you from any hospital to the hospital of your choice -- at your decision. The only prereq is that you be admitted to a hospital somewhere -- it doesn't matter if the doctors there claim they are capable of treating you [which under trip insurance means you are stuck there]. It's also very cheap -- and even cheaper if you are an AARP member.

[caltnl]

We were absurd the Westerdam a few years ago going thru the Panama Canal when we stopped in the lock and looking from our port balcony we saw a gangway being pushed on board. Next thing an ambulance came along side unloaded a gurney and pushed it onboard and in a few minutes they were exiting the ship with a patient and second person loaded with suitcases leaving the ship. Gangway removed and we were on our way again.

 

Bill

[jagsfan]

That is such a sad thing to see. We look forward so much to our cruises so it gets you in your heart to see someone's cruise end that way.

 

 

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