Thrown off Ship in Turkey

[rebeccalouise]

In the original post the OP said that her mother went to "their" cabin. So I assume they were sharing a cabin and even if they weren't she would not have abandoned her friend in Turkey.

 

Now this happened two days ago and the OP said the man was coughing up blood but was "cleared" to reboard. That is clearly not the case. If he is in a hospital and not on a flight home- there is more to this story.

 

I am not saying the OP is lying- she is only hearing these details from a scared woman stuck in Turkey.

 

Let's see how this plays out. I feel bad for all involved but it doesn't sound like Princess dumped them in Turkey. It sounds like Princess assessed the situation and sent them to a Turkish doctor (hospital). Then the ship set sail. That's all they could do for heaven's sake. Does the poster expect that the cruise line is going to babysit this couple in Turkey.

Get real. That's all anyone can expect. Princess left them in capable hands and now the OP is responsible for getting her mother home. Then the parties involved can duke it out with the insurance if it is covered.

 

I do feel for the OP. It is a difficult situation and I wish this man a speedy recovery and your mother a quick journey home. I think it will all financially take care of itself.

[nimbex1970]

Sorry, but this entire post was started by a story that is second or third hand.

 

The OP tells the story related by het 77 year old mother who is the friend of the person who was sick.

 

The readers here, much less the OP knows what actually happened.

 

Almost all readers here know that ship’s doctors are good for asprin and maybe a stich or two. Anything worse than a broken bone while at port is an automatic off the ship ticket. If you bothered, it has been given to every passenger in the contract:

 

(deleted by me)

 

I strongly disagree. The doctor as well as the staff RN's are ACLS certified to deal with life threatening circumstances to stabalize and treat until life flight can be brought in. This includes recusitation, intubation and a pleathora of IV medications.

 

now of course this pt. needed to see an emergency room, however the doctors and staff are able to deal with VERY serious emergencys and prepare to transfer pt.'s out quickly there after.

 

please don't scare the general public that any serious illness would go without any skill level to attempt to treat and stabalize except a bandaid or stitches:eek:. sorry a bit off topic but felt the strong need to clarify this and I read this poster to be backhanding .

 

OP-keep us up to date, I've been through the insurance bit with flights and it does take many phone calls, but mine was resolved with persistance.

[judynorth]

Not all cruise lines treat their pax this way. My SIL and BIL sail Windstar (another Carnival line, BTW) frequently. On a recent cruise (within the last 2 years) they and several other pax were staying pre-cruise at a hotel in Rome. The hotel caught fire and everyone had to be evacuated. Several of the pax were injured and required hospitalization. The cruise line provided an interpreter for the hospitalized pax, retrieved their luggage and provided necessary things for them, and arranged for them to join the cruise once released from the hospital. Perhaps the contract doesn't require this but it seems like the right thing to do if for no other reason than for PR purposes.

 

I would hope that once all the facts are known, we find that Princess arranged for the port agent to assist these pax in Turkey. I cannot imagine trying to make arrangements unassisted in a foreign country where I do not know the language. I would not even know where to begin!

 

I also question why the emergency contact was not notified. Does the cruise line require this information so that they can be notified just in the case of the death of a pax? I would hope not!

[AliceJ]

haha...throwing a sick person out the "door" into the ditch as your driving away dosen't exactly reduce your liability or make for very good customer relations..what if something had happened to her in Turkey? They should have made sure they were able to make it to a hospital.

 

I never said it was a great way to deal with the situation or that I agree with the way it was handled, just said that I wasn't surprised.

[jlp20]

>>>>I strongly disagree. The doctor as well as the staff RN's are ACLS certified to deal with life threatening circumstances........

 

True, but as I stated, if you are docked or anywhere near land they take you off the ship

 

 

>>>>now of course this pt. needed to see an emergency room, however the doctors and staff are able to deal with VERY serious emergencies and prepare to transfer pt.'s out quickly there after.

 

Translate the above sentence- Passenger got sick and was forced off ship.

 

 

>>>>please don't scare the general public that any serious illness would go without any skill level to attempt to treat and stabalize except a bandaid or stitches. sorry a bit off topic but felt the strong need to clarify this and I read this poster to be backhanding .

 

Your term "skill Level" leads me to believe you are connected with the medical field and have taken this as a personnel assault. Yes the ship's doctor has been trained in a fine school somewhere in the world. And for whatever reason instead of working at a hospital or private practice he has isolated himself in a small community no larger than 4200 people. Then if you look at it, he does not have final say on a patient, the captain does, who MUST keep to a schedule. And as far as scaring anyone, if any reader here were to truly get deathly ill, please vote. Stay on the ship or go to the nearest medium sized city where there are several hospitals.

[rebeccalouise]

I do think they sent this gentleman to a hospital in Turkey. At least he is in one as of the OP's last post. I imagine that Princess has contacts in each port for these types of events and more than likely sends their patients to a hospital.

I am not a Princess cheerleader and I do feel for this person but I do think that level heads need to prevail here. This person was sick, Princess took this person to a hospital and probably has not been able to make arrangements for this patient until his situation improves. In truth I think Princess did do the right thing by disembarking this passenger.

Every cruise line has to deal with illness. I am sure it is a nuisance for all involved but this man did get the appropriate medical treatment and that would be my concern. Too bad it happened in Turkey. But as they say, that's life.

[Cruisin Kay D]

If you have private insurance, you are "on your own" after Princess puts you off the ship. If you have Princess insurance, then it is still the insurance company you have to work with, not Princess. You are simply NO LONGER A PASSENGER!!!

 

Our 1st & only experience with this was in 2000 on Crown Princess on Panama Canal cruise and involves my parents who had TravelGuard insurance:

Mom (then 85 yr old) got sick after Grand Cayman -- red blood counts very low & doctor feared internal bleeding.

During day at sea, doctor decided to send her back to Ft. L next port Limon Costa Rica, but a crew member jumped overboard that sea day & ship searched all day, so arrival at Limon delayed half a day.

Weather so bad the air-ambulance Learjet could not land at Limon; air-ambulance rescheduled for next day Panama Canal.

During night mom's blood got so low that the Purser & Doctor each gave her a pint of their blood but she had a reaction to that & nearly died.

She was taken off ship in middle of Canal & mom+dad were put in regular ambulance, driven to airport & flown back to Ft.L.

Me, my sister & our spouses were still on the ship because no room on the plane & parents insisted we finish the cruise (not much fun!).

Before or after she was removed from ship Princess did NOT HELP us communicate with family in TN, did not let us use their computers nor paid for any phone messages.

We called our 36 yr old son & he flew to Ft.L to wait at hospital to take care of dad.

Ship's doctor communicated with hospital once a day for us for 1st 2 days -- daughter tried to call ship & fax ship but nothing came through.

Princess required us to remove eveything from their cabin within 3 hr after she left ship (while ship going back through the canal!) No refund of any cruise fees for unused part of cruise.

Travel Guard paid nearly all of their expenses though dad had some issues with Princess for 2 years, which he reluctantly paid -- can't remember specifics.

After every GI type test imaginable, Ft. L hospital could not diagnose the cause of low blood counts, gave her a unit or 2 of blood, & sent her home with us on airplane after we got back from cruise -- she had similar episode in 2004 and again in 2006, but cause is still a mystery!! She's 91 now!!

 

Whole episode affected sister greatly & she did not want to go on a cruise again until this past spring when they tried HAL.

My parents encouraged Mike & me not to let this situation ruin our attitude about cruising (that was our 5th cruise) & we jumped back on a ship about 8 months later.

 

Now I would NEVER NEVER cruise without cruise insurance!!!

[donna5]

Just a suggestion, but why not e-mail the ship and nicely ask what happened in relation to this incident?

[Admiral Horatio Nelson]

Just a suggestion, but why not e-mail the ship and nicely ask what happened in relation to this incident?

 

Any questions directed to specific ships would be sent to main office. Ships cannot make statements as it could potentially get into the media etc. Any statements like that would have to come from Santa Clarita.

[DEL67]

Ships are only equipped for minor injuries and initial treatment of "emergencies" so anyone who could potentially have something serious is usually sent to the nearest hospital.

 

We experienced this when my husband had a heart attack aboard the Celebrity Infinity a few years ago while we were in Panama. Even though the ship has better facilities than the local hospital, we were disembarked and sent to a clinic where the cardiologist carried his EKG machine in a back pack. Luckily it was a minor attack so we were able to go home after a few days.

 

There was one major difference - Celebrity's shore agent assisted us in every way he could: translating, making a hotel reservation for me, taking me to a travel agency to get tickets home, arranging for transportation to the airport, etc. I could not have asked for more!

[DNCButler]

Ok I read through this whole thread and I agree with those who say that this is all 2nd hand at best from an upset 70 year old Mom who is scared to death in a strange country. I feel for these two, I truly do. But we do not know what Princess did or did not do here and are judging Princess on hear-say from the daughter of the Mother who was travelling with the man who was ill. She does not know for sure what happened because she was not there. And many of us know that our perceptions of situations are not always accurate when we are going through a difficult situation.

 

Princess does not owe a refund to anyone once they are taken off the ship. I'm sorry but they do not. It does not appear to be Princess' fault that he got sick, it's a terrible situation but it's not Princess' fault as they did not cause this.

 

The gentleman WAS hospitalized. If Princess did not have her pack their belongings then when they didn't return because he had been hospitalized what was Princess supposed to do? Not sail and inconvenience the other 3000 passengers? Or store it and assume responsiblity when something is missing from the cabin? It seems to me that I would have packed everything up as quick as possible so that I had everything with me on shore and not back on the ship that has just sailed without me.

 

As I said, I feel bad for these people but they did purchase insurance thankfully. Most insurance companies offer travel assistance for exactly this type of situation as well as email and phone message relay to family members. They can process a claim for trip interruption and their flights home as well as the medical expenses. But remember, HE WAS SICK. He may not have been contagious but he was ill enough to require a stay in the hospital.

 

I hope that your Mom and her friend are now home safe and sound, but I think that expecting a refund from Princess is IN MY OPINION a bit too much without having all the facts in front of you.

[Admiral Horatio Nelson]

 

I hope that your Mom and her friend are now home safe and sound, but I think that expecting a refund from Princess is IN MY OPINION a bit too much without having all the facts in front of you.

 

I agree with this entire post. I find it hard to believe some of the information in the original post, it's a little dramatic. It's most likely they were removed from the ship to prevent an outbreak and so the patient could get proper treatment. This thread could have easily have read, 'Princess kept a sick passenger onboard and we all got sick!' I can understand what it's like being dropped off in the foreign country, it's happened to me many times and I'm glad everyone is OK, but I think Princess did the right thing.

[Jimsgirl]

Believe me being "stranded " in Turkey is scary. On one flight my plane put down in Istanbul with engine trouble, all the pasengers were herded into a large room, and armed guards were inside and outside the door. No one came to tell us what was happening, and we were there for hours ,some had small children.

 

As for the Consulate/Embassy, they are there to assist any USA citzen. Loss of passport, loss of funds (yes you do have to prove you can repay in the states) etc.

This was an emergency for the people concerned, even if the patient was in a hospital, they needed someone who could translate from Turkish to American, and could assist them in getting back to USA. That is the job of the Consulate/Embassy staff, they are not just there for cocktails or conferences over trade pacts.

I wonder if some of the writers -if women - have even been in a Muslim country hospital. I have, and believe me the conditions,(even in a big city ) can be less than acceptable, as a woman the posters mother would have been ignored by the doctors or any male staff. Just getting a cup of coffee would have been difficult for her - and what about money? I doubt if the hospital would take $ or credit card .

I think the ship did not handle the emotional/human fear response at all well.

Certainly the ships agent should have been involved - (the captain should have insisted on that) - but of course the agent was a male, in a country which now treats its women as badly as Afghanistan,Iraq , Pakistan etc.

[2ladies]

Doesn't the ship's agent in the various ports assist in cases like this? That's surely why they put the details on the Pitter Patter!!

 

Unfortunately, I can easily believe that the ship's personnel were unhelpful and unsympathetic.

 

I do hope that everything goes well for them and that they arrive home safely!!

[smeyer418]

Turkey which has a big US base, has loads of people who speak english. Many of their doctors were trained in the US. It would still be scary. I have flown inside Tureky many times without problems and they still service food on intra country flights...better service than in the US and this is within the last year.

[cusyl]

I hope the OP will come back and tell us the rest of this story. She said her mother and friend were due back in the states yesterday.

[Jimsgirl]

Please tell us they arrived safely back here in the USA. As civilians they would not have been treated at the US base. Having lived for over two years in Pakistan, saying someone trained in the US is not a quarantee that they will keep up the same sterile standards once they are "back home".

Ask anyone who has returned from Iraq or Afghanistan about the conditions they saw

 

To give you a smile:-

I was in hospital north of Quetta (you have all seen the country side on TV, yes it really does look like that). I had very severe dysentry, but being a Muslim the doctor would not examine me, instead he asked my husband questions, "how bad the pain," "where is the pain" , etc etc. Then he announced -"The baby will come soon, if Allah wills it will be a son". -and he left me in the care of three hill women none of whom spoke English (and all were wearing very dirty street clothes). One offered me a drink of water from a glass with 2 dead flies floating in it.

 

I have had the longest gestation period in the history of mankind!!!!!

[ptater]

Jimsgirl....you are one savvy traveler. You made some great suggestions earlier...especially for women traveling alone. I usually travel with a friend,

usually another woman, and it can be interesting in almost any country

including ours. Men have no idea the interesting situations that can arise

and I imagine a lot of the posters here are women who usually travel with

a male companion so they have no frame of reference either. I, too, am very anxious to hear

from the original poster that everyone is home safely.

[newhampshiregirl]

For anyone who is interested here is an update. While the original post may have sounded "Dramatic" as one poster noted, in fact it was factual according to my mother and her friend. Many thanks for the kind words of people who posted and who suggested ways of dealing with this problem. In the end, this is NOT about the fact that they decided to send them to the hospital for medical care...this is about the fact that Princess provided NO customer care or customer service to two loyal and experienced cruisers who were quite literally dumped in a hospital in a small village in the middle of Turkey.

 

My mother and her friend (he is a gentleman friend who was sick) arrived home in Michigan last night after a two day journey from Turkey to get home. According to my Mom and her friend who I have had several conversations with last night and this morning, here is what happened:

-My mom's friend (they shared a cabin) got sick on the ship-they went to the ship's doctor while in port in Turkey

-They did an EKG, blood tests etc.

-The Ship's doctor explained that he may need more medical care and they did not know what was wrong with him and that they needed to go the hospital in port.

-They called an ambulance, sent my mother to her cabin and told her to pack everything up.

-Before leaving they made sure that she went to the purser and settled the bill--including a $1500 bill for the Ship's Doctor.

-They sent someone to help her pack everything up and then added a $200 charge to her onboard bill for the service (which she did not ask for)

-They would not let her friend accompany her to the cabin and when asked if he could use the bathroom he was told "don't try to escape', Which they were shocked at.

-They were told that Princess' policy was that they could not reboard the ship in that port or any other for the remaining 6 days of the cruise.

-They were not given the name of a Princess' Port Agent, nor given ANY assistance at all once in the port.

-They were not given a phone number of anyone to call

-Our family was not notified that they were taken from the ship--even though Princess had all of our names and contact information.

-To our knowledge the American Embassy / Consultant in Turkey was not notified that they had sent my Mother and her friend to the hospital.

-A gentlemen who turned out to be a literal 'ambulance chaser' from the port to the hospital with some contact at the hospital tried to scam them into thinking he represented the travel insurance company and went so far as to have their travel insurance documentation in hand. My mother and her friend grew suspicous, asked for help using the telephone in the hospital and contacted the insurance company directly. This man did not work for them. Don't know what his scam was, but luckily my mom was able to get the papers back and get rid of the guy.

 

They both stayed in the hospital (there was a day bed in the room for my Mom) while they conducted more tests. The final diagnosis was 'gastric infection' which was non contagious. They had to pay a $5000 bill at the hospital before departing. Both my mother and her friend were fine before boarding the ship and are both in good health. There is a very good chance he contracted this onboard either through water or food...but we will never know this for a fact I am sure.

 

The insurance company would not cover my my Mom's airplane ticket home ($1300) because she was not sick. I was very concerned about them flying on Sept. 11.

 

This is what happened and this will be the information that will be forwarded to Princess, the insurance company and of course the travel agent who they have already been in contact with.

 

Again, many thanks for the kind words of posters who were sympathetic to me and my family. One poster had it right... she said, "where is the customer service"? This is the question my family will be asking when communicating with Princess Cruise lines.

 

In the end, the most important issue is they are home safely.

[Host CJSKIDS]

I'm so glad that your mom got home safely and I'm so sorry for all she went through. I hope that this doesn't sour her on traveling and that she continues to do something that she enjoys. Good luck with everything.

 

Carolyn

[jad7984]

Glad that they are both home safely, and thanks for the update. I am truly appalled.

 

I hope that Princess provides compensation, although they probably won't given their reputation:mad:. Good luck with everything.

[Cruisin' Chick]

""where is the customer service"? This is the question my family will be asking when communicating with Princess Cruise lines."

 

Just the idea that they weren't given the port agent's number (in fact, maybe someone on the passenger services desk should have been assigned to guide them thru the process, including calling the port agent for them, as obviously they had the health issue to deal with...

[KLLund]

I have read this thread with considerable interest and I am so happy to hear that mom is home and except for the hassles ahead with Princess all is well.. I too think that the customer service describe is appalling ..

 

I just have a question out of pure curiosity since that is a part of the world I want to explore further .. the OP describes

 

"experienced cruisers who were quite literally dumped in a hospital in a small village in the middle of Turkey"

 

May we know which port this was ???

[rebeccalouise]

Glad your mother and friend arrived home safe and sound. I hope that Princess does reimburse your mother for some of the expense but I don't know how all that works with the travel insurance.

Good luck and glad they made it home in one peice.

[cusyl]

I find this appalling that Princess had no more concern for their welfare than to just get them off the ship and be done with them!

Charging them $200. to pack? They are already paid by Princess as employees, why are they charging for this, it makes no sense. :rolleyes:

 

It certainly makes me more aware of what I need to be doing when I cruise. Next time I will make myself an emergency kit containing my insurance policy, passport, credit card and be sure and always have the daily ship's paper for the port with the port agent's phone number and have a phone that will call from that port. These are just things we don't usually think about when we are having a relaxing cruise.

 

I'm glad your mother and her friend got home okay, I'm sure they are happy to be back home. I hope that they are able to recoup some of their money from their insurance and from Princess.