A Fractured LIVE - Fractured My Ankle on Carnival Spirit - In hospital in Cartagena

[TravelBluebird]

3 minutes ago, broberts said:

 

It happened on the gangway I believe. Is that considered part of the ship when it is touching land?

Actually happened on small stairwell from Deck 1  - to deck A which leads to gangway, so definitely it was on the ship

[TravelBluebird]

My Carnival App  just sent me a reminder for my steak house reservation on the ship tonight  😢

[3some]

I tripped on the stairs inside the Panorama during our January Mexican Riviera cruise. I braced for the fall with my hand and landed on a piece of broken wine glass jammed in my palm. Medical center xrayed and stitched me up. They charged me $383. I have Alianz insurance, but they are 2nd payers, so I filed with my Medicare Advantage plan against the Global Emergency benefit ($200 copay). That coverage was denied because the ship's doctor (or admin) did not provide ICD codes, only verbal diagnosis,  procedure names, and suppliees . I have filed with Aliianz, but haven't heard anything yet. I'm afraid they won't pay without ICD codes either.

 

Make sure you get ICD codes and doctors' names.

[TravelBluebird]

1 hour ago, 3some said:

I tripped on the stairs inside the Panorama during our January Mexican Riviera cruise. I braced for the fall with my hand and landed on a piece of broken wine glass jammed in my palm. Medical center xrayed and stitched me up. They charged me $383. I have Alianz insurance, but they are 2nd payers, so I filed with my Medicare Advantage plan against the Global Emergency benefit ($200 copay). That coverage was denied because the ship's doctor (or admin) did not provide ICD codes, only verbal diagnosis,  procedure names, and suppliees . I have filed with Aliianz, but haven't heard anything yet. I'm afraid they won't pay without ICD codes either.

 

Make sure you get ICD codes and doctors' names.

 Oh OUCH!! At least you were able to get the stitches on the ship and thank goodness you weren’t hurt worse with the Fall.  

 

Well, we have doctors names and written out diagnoses, but I don’t know about ICD codes and we have already left the hospital. Sigh. We have a phone number for the translator at the hospital so if worse comes to worse I think we can get those emailed to us. There was so much to deal with in the discharge!

[Maureen1234]

We stopped in Cartegena..Vendors were very aggressive there. Hope they're ok in hospital. 

 

[TravelBluebird]

I have been discharged in the hospital and safely have used my crutches to get to the hotel room. My husband has gotten the needed drugs from the pharmacy (antibiotics, anticoagulant and like 5 days of tramadol for pain, which I sure hope works).

 

As mentioned, the Hotel Bahia is an older hotel with lots of old style Columbian flavor. You sort of expect Don Johnson to come careening around the corner in Miami Vice (I totally stole that from a review). The rooms are nothing to write home about. BUT because it is an old style hotel it has old style service.

 

Hotel staff unlocked the restaurant door so I wouldn’t have to take stairs into the main part of the hotel. My body is exhausted after surgery and 2 days in bed, so using the crutches is not easy at all, plus the day of the accident until the  operation I was clenching my thigh muscle on the injured side (evidently) so that muscle I need for crutches is shot.

 

I rested in a chair in the restaurant once up the walk (where we had limonadas). Then the bell man brought me a chair to rest by the elevator, and again once up the elevator on the way to my room. Then he  brought me a plastic chair for a shower chair and extra pillows.

 

Photos below of the restaurant area of the hotel, plus some skyline shots Russ shot out of my hospital window, and the food is from the hotel restaurant when Russ took a well-deserved break from the hospital for some dinner last night; he said the ceviche was most excellent. 

 

Also a photo of my safely wrapped/splinted after-surgery ankle. The toes are pointed in the right direction; that makes me feel SO much better!

 

 

 

Views from hospital

 

Hotel Bahia Fish Fillet

Cuban rice at Hotel Bahia

Ceviche

 

My foot all pointed in the right direction

 

Hotel Bahia Restaurant

 

Edited April 24, 2022 by TravelBluebird

[TravelBluebird]

30 minutes ago, Maureen1234 said:

We stopped in Cartegena..Vendors were very aggressive there. Hope they're ok in hospital. 

 

My husband has walked around this area of the city extensively (back and forth to hospital, to pharmacy, for food) and hasn’t run into one aggressive vendor. They must congregate in the tourist areas.  We are about 1.5 miles from the Old City of Cartagena.  If I am doing OK when I take an afternoon nap he will go walk around the Old City for a couple hours I’ll let you know if that is different.

[dezertcruzer]

On 4/21/2022 at 1:04 PM, TravelBluebird said:

Allianz told my husband to get doctor names and notes.  We would not have thought yo do that.  
 

Dr said medically we should fly First Class but hubby not finding anything that really works for that.  Couple of 2 Stop routes with partial first class.  He’s having trouble finding any 1 stop routes at all.  Any ideas?  

 

 

When I had to be disembarked from Carnival Pride to the hospital in Grand Turk in 2017, Allianz flew me back to the US in a private medical evac jet.  When I became ill and hospitalized in Cape Canaveral in 2019,, Allianz arranged for a private nurse to accompany me in first class from Florida to Arizona.  In both cases, they were in constant contact with me and their service was of superior caliber.  I will never travel without their coverage again.

[TravelBluebird]

52 minutes ago, dezertcruzer said:

When I had to be disembarked from Carnival Pride to the hospital in Grand Turk in 2017, Allianz flew me back to the US in a private medical evac jet.  When I became ill and hospitalized in Cape Canaveral in 2019,, Allianz arranged for a private nurse to accompany me in first class from Florida to Arizona.  In both cases, they were in constant contact with me and their service was of superior caliber.  I will never travel without their coverage again.

 

Wow; Allianz not been much help to us at all as far as support.  My husband spoke to someone to tell them about my injury and that was about it.  I don’t need private medical transport, but a little more reassurance//hand holding about the claims process and in general would be nice.  

 

Nevertheless, we will never ever travel without insurance. I can’t imagine my anxiety level with all these medical bills piling up with no insurance! Dealing with the medical emergency itself is more than enough.

[TravelBluebird]

59 minutes ago, dezertcruzer said:

When I had to be disembarked from Carnival Pride to the hospital in Grand Turk in 2017, Allianz flew me back to the US in a private medical evac jet.  When I became ill and hospitalized in Cape Canaveral in 2019,, Allianz arranged for a private nurse to accompany me in first class from Florida to Arizona.  In both cases, they were in constant contact with me and their service was of superior caliber.  I will never travel without their coverage again.

 

Two medical emergencies while traveling only 2 years apart!  I can’t imagine; this is enough to last me a couple decades at least (I hope). Was the emergency at Cape Canaveral also part of a cruise?

[Cherries Jubilee]

I’m so sorry this happened to you! Wishing you a speedy recovery and a smooth insurance claim process!

[atakkat]

TravelBluebird, so sorry this has happened to you but so very happy you had a successful surgery and had travel insurance. Please make sure to drink extra water to help with the prevention of possible clots along with your anticoagulants. Definitely elevate your leg to keep swelling down as much as possible. I pray the rest of your journey home goes well. Consider aqua therapy as possible PT after the incision is closed completely and Dr okay. The water will help with your arthritis as well. Take care.

[ladysail2]

On 4/22/2022 at 6:14 PM, TravelBluebird said:

 Also, I’m booked on the Jubilee Inaugural sailing from Southampton England to Galveston TX end of October 2023. Would be so lovely if some of you are on that trip as well!!  And I have indeed gained lots of new friends here; just another (very)  bright lining to this whole difficult situation.

I’m booked on that cruise too. Join the roll call when you can….hopefully we can all get together and talk recovery. I also slipped on snow covered ice while walking to work several years ago….tore two ligaments….oh boy, even with PT, they took a long time to heal….and painful..but the physiotherapist was from Columbia and just looking at him and feeling his healing touch made me feel better.   Many healing hugs going your way…keep up the positivity and you’ll be fine in no time.  ❤️

[ladysail2]

Colombia…….

[TravelBluebird]

1 hour ago, atakkat said:

TravelBluebird, so sorry this has happened to you but so very happy you had a successful surgery and had travel insurance. Please make sure to drink extra water to help with the prevention of possible clots along with your anticoagulants. Definitely elevate your leg to keep swelling down as much as possible. I pray the rest of your journey home goes well. Consider aqua therapy as possible PT after the incision is closed completely and Dr okay. The water will help with your arthritis as well. Take care.

 

Thank you for the good advice. It is hard to drink enough water because that means more trips to the bathroom, which means more time on crutches and I’m pretty awful at them so far.

 

Leg is elevated, and I am going to arrange PT as soon as the doctor lets me (I already have exercises from the PT at the Colombian hospital that I can do in bed to try to maintain muscle strength for the crutches and to move to avoid clots).

 

[TravelBluebird]

Today our major task is repacking our luggage for the trip home. My poor husband, of course, had to pack an entire room full of our stuff (lots of it for a 16 day journey!) in a very short amount of time. SO its a jumble. The good news is so far when we’ve looked for something major or important that we have needed he has found it, so I call the emergency packing for disembarkation a success.

 

Our Carnival liaison is also going to stop by.

 

We have changed our required pre-flight COVID test to the hospital coming to our room very early tomorrow. With my difficulty with walking distances with the crutches that seems wise (original plan was to have the Carnival liaison drive us to a pharmacy for the COVID test). 

 

Right now my husband is taking a long walk as I’m resting—he needs it!

[TravelBluebird]

56 minutes ago, ladysail2 said:

I’m booked on that cruise too. Join the roll call when you can….hopefully we can all get together and talk recovery. I also slipped on snow covered ice while walking to work several years ago….tore two ligaments….oh boy, even with PT, they took a long time to heal….and painful..but the physiotherapist was from Columbia and just looking at him and feeling his healing touch made me feel better.   Many healing hugs going your way…keep up the positivity and you’ll be fine in no time.  ❤️

 

I will join the roll call; glad you are on the trip! Another friend who is most likely coming with me (her first time on Carnival; she’s mainly a Royal Caribbean person) also just had her foot/ankle repaired with plates and screws, so she unfortunately can talk recovery with us.  

 

I am set for a long road back.  I kept my positivity after a knee replacement, so hope to do it here, and kept at PT and then exercise, and my knee is now fully back to normal, even though it took a full year. 

[MagnoliaBlossom]

So sorry for your injury.  Five years ago,the day after returning from a fabulous cruise I fell and sustained a trimaleolar fracture with full dislocation.  Surgically repaired with a large plate and eight screws.  When I say, “I feel your pain” - I really do!  I was diligent about therapy and was pretty good by six months but it was really a year before I could say I was back to normal.

 

for many years we have had an emergency evacuation policy which has phenomenal coverage.  $189/ yr for both of.  We have never had to use it but it’s reassuring to know it’s there.

 

best wishes for a full recovery.

[dezertcruzer]

15 hours ago, TravelBluebird said:

 

Two medical emergencies while traveling only 2 years apart!  I can’t imagine; this is enough to last me a couple decades at least (I hope). Was the emergency at Cape Canaveral also part of a cruise?

No, the Cape Canaveral emergency was total kidney failure.  It was during a condo stay the week after a cruise,  They found that I had some kind of nasty blood infection.  Twelve weeks of heavy duty IV antibiotics and lifetime kidney dialysis were the result.  This was our last trip before the pandemic. 

 

We were finally able to travel again for Thanksgiving 2021 and we went back to Cape Canaveral for a do-over of all the things we didn't get to do in 2019 since we were doing hospital things instead.  My older brother lives in Rockledge, which is only 10 miles away, and his sons live nearby as well.  My younger brother and his wife also came from Arizona and we had a nice family get together for Thanksgiving.  We plan to go back for Thanksgiving again this year.

 

Good luck with your trip home and your rehabilitation in the months to come.

[ginabab]

Dear TravelBluebird,

 

It’s so nice you are sharing this experience with us

I will always walk down a gangway with extreme caution while thinking of you 

 

Again, I’m so sorry this happened

You seem to be someone who is very strong 
 

I hope to meet you in person someday

 

[TravelBluebird]

3 hours ago, MagnoliaBlossom said:

So sorry for your injury.  Five years ago,the day after returning from a fabulous cruise I fell and sustained a trimaleolar fracture with full dislocation.  Surgically repaired with a large plate and eight screws.  When I say, “I feel your pain” - I really do!  I was diligent about therapy and was pretty good by six months but it was really a year before I could say I was back to normal.

 

for many years we have had an emergency evacuation policy which has phenomenal coverage.  $189/ yr for both of.  We have never had to use it but it’s reassuring to know it’s there.

 

best wishes for a full recovery.

 

Oh ouch—that sounds as painful as mine!  6 months to a year for full recovery is definitely what people are telling me.  It’s frightening how many people have told me similar stories; I now know why first-floor bedrooms are so popular (of course, we have a 3 level house with no bedroom on the first floor..but once I get to our top level—up one flight—there is everything I need except a kitchen (bedroom,  no-step up shower, tv with lift-your-legs seating, my office) and we can make that work.

 

@MagnoliaBlossom What is the limit on your medical evacuation coverage?  We also have medical evacuation coverage—that part of our policy is very high, up to $500,000. I thought that was enough but we may up that because I read here on Cruise Critic of a medical evacuation that cost about $560,000 so the poor person was out of pocket for $60,000. Costs seem to be skyrocketing for that.

 

 We may look into upping the amount of medical coverage as well...seeing what a fractured ankle cost, what if it was something worse?  We renew our travel insurance policy in September before our Viking River Cruise.

[TravelBluebird]

1 hour ago, dezertcruzer said:

No, the Cape Canaveral emergency was total kidney failure.  It was during a condo stay the week after a cruise,  They found that I had some kind of nasty blood infection.  Twelve weeks of heavy duty IV antibiotics and lifetime kidney dialysis were the result.  This was our last trip before the pandemic. 

 

We were finally able to travel again for Thanksgiving 2021 and we went back to Cape Canaveral for a do-over of all the things we didn't get to do in 2019 since we were doing hospital things instead.  My older brother lives in Rockledge, which is only 10 miles away, and his sons live nearby as well.  My younger brother and his wife also came from Arizona and we had a nice family get together for Thanksgiving.  We plan to go back for Thanksgiving again this year.

 

Good luck with your trip home and your rehabilitation in the months to come.

 

@dezertcruzer Your last trip before the pandemic! Oh how awful.  At least the cruise was over, but still.  I’m glad you got to go back in 2021 to have a do-over on the Cape Canaveral part of your trip.  We are already figuring out when/how we are going to try a Panama Canal cruise again after my healing and rehabilitation.

[SeaHunt]

Re the crutches - make sure they are set for your height. The other lady I posted about who broke her ankle was pretty short and she was having a hard time with her crutches. They tried to adjust hers, but she found out that they were already set for the shortest height, which for that pair was 5' 10"! And no shorter ones available!

 

Prayers to you to get you both home safe and sound and pain free! 👼

[TravelBluebird]

6 minutes ago, SeaHunt said:

Re the crutches - make sure they are set for your height. The other lady I posted about who broke her ankle was pretty short and she was having a hard time with her crutches. They tried to adjust hers, but she found out that they were already set for the shortest height, which for that pair was 5' 10"! And no shorter ones available!

 

Prayers to you to get you both home safe and sound and pain free! 👼

 

 @SeaHunt I am TOTALLY having this problem; they are adjusted at the shortest height and they are still at least an inch too tall (maybe 2”). I’m totally going to get another pair back in the States.

[TravelBluebird]

18 hours ago, Maureen1234 said:

We stopped in Cartegena..Vendors were very aggressive there. Hope they're ok in hospital. 

 

@Maureen1234 When Russ took his walk today, he said there were indeed a ton of vendors in the Old City area, and they were, as he put it “quite annoying” which is Russ code for aggressive. So they are there, at least localized to the Old City area of Cartagena. They are not in this area or at the nearby beach (turns out our hotel is 2 blocks from the beach).