Winched from ship to have kidney transplant

[Aus Traveller]

Good, I hope it isn't needed but great that you will have it to help someone if the need arises. Not sure that they would take your blood on the ship without the card. The captains message was very clear that anyone willing to donate was to attend the medical centre with their blood donor card. I guess our cruise card has our pic as adequate Id as they didnt say to take passports. Considering the age of passengers and potential for medical issues thereby discounting many potential donors I was surprised to hear how many folk volunteered. Cant remember if it was 50 or 60 but in that range.

I did wonder why the medical centre wouldnt have a list of every crew member on board, their blood group and cabin number to be able to get blood almost instantly. Your comments about being excluded due to location of your cruise explained why that wouldn't work. Have a lovely cruise.

On several cruises we have heard the call for blood donors. As already mentioned, they will only take donations from people who have their blood donor card with them. I am pretty sure that is because the cruise line is assured that the donor has been checked out medically as being fit (and safe) to donate.

 

There might be a problem with calling on the crew to donate. I think it is fairly unlikely that many of them would be blood donors in their home country, therefore leaving it up to the medical centre on board to check their history and suitability as a donor. It could also look 'bad', calling on a crew member to donate. They might feel they didn't have much choice, whereas the passengers willingly come forward to donate.

 

On the cruises where donations have been called for, usually there is a report within half an hour or so, that they have sufficient donors.

[windsor26]

On our last cruise there were two separate helicopter evacuations - different days of course. All loose furniture was removed from the deck area and it was closed off to everyone for quite a while.

We were woken up at 5.30am to clear our cabin as the medivac helicopter was expected They cleared all the cabins below the pool and sun bed area in case there was a crash

 

Very interesting to see how competent the helicopter pilot and the captain of the ship were keeping stable with each other