Medical Evacuation Experience

[dce85]

On our recent Seaside cruise we had that experience that no one wants . . . the need for medical evacuation.    My husband is a heart transplant recipient and therefore needs to be faithful to taking his medications.   He's developed a way of packing them that ensures he has what he needs plus several extra days workth.   He took them Sunday morning as we left for the cruise (Florida residents) and looked twice because something seemed off.   He looked at his whole pill box and everything matched so we took off for the cruise.   The next morning he realized the mistake; he was missing one of his immunosuppressant drugs.  It had just been refilled and the medication wasn't where it should have been so it was left out of the pill box.  Big oops.   He knew he couldn't skip it for a week; his heart is a bit too precious for us to do that.  That's where he asked for help.   A huge THANK YOU  to Carlos (guest services) and Sebastian (immigration) for all their help.  Unfortunately, his needed medication is not available in the Bahamas and we weren't sure it would be available in Cancun (after a 5 hour drive from Costa Maya) so the decision was made to go home. Thankfully he didn't need to be airlifted (that's a $25,000 bill without trip insurance).   The next morning he caught a boat from Ocean Cay to Bimini.  From Bimini to Nassau he caught a plane.   Then he had a long wait in Nassau before flying to Fort Lauderdale.  There he rented a car to drive home.   Then on Thursday he drove to Tampa and caught a flight to Cozumel so that he could rejoin us for the last two days of the cruise.   As he said, the most expensive excursion he's ever taken but he got the meds in the doctor's preferred time window.

Thanks again Carlos and Sebastian!   You made a very stressful situation manageable.

[PTC DAWG]

Wow…

[cbfb]

He’s very lucky. I’m glad it all turned out ok. 

[JamieLogical]

Oh my goodness! I am so glad to hear things turned out okay. Definitely invest in trip insurance that covers medical evacuation in the future, but I am just so glad your husband is safe. Happy to hear that guest services did their best to deal with the situation as well.

[joeyancho]

Check against a list and have someone double check.   Then check again.   Glad this ended well.  

Edited September 12, 2023 by joeyancho

[Av8tor]

5 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

Oh my goodness! I am so glad to hear things turned out okay. Definitely invest in trip insurance that covers medical evacuation in the future, but I am just so glad your husband is safe. Happy to hear that guest services did their best to deal with the situation as well.

Glad thing turned out OK health-wise but not so much for the wallet.  Unfortunately, I'm not sure trip insurance with medical evacuation coverage would cover this.  The devil is in the details and the tons of policy fine print probably has VERY specific requirements before  they pay a dime...