Have you been evacuated of a Princess Ship?

[cactusrose]

At lot of people mention the expense of medical evacuation as a major reason to buy travel insurance (including me). I’ve also read that evacuation from the ship by coast guard or military is free. I’m not sure if that is true in foreign waters. So I would like to hear from those that have been evacuated from the ship while at sea about their experience.

Who actually performed the evacuation?

 

Where were you when you were evacuated?

 

Where did they take you?

 

Were you charged and approximately how much did it cost?

 

If you had insurance, how did they handle it?

[dforeigner]

Medical evacuation= MEDEVAC. Some people may confuse evacuated by itself with having to abandon the ship.

 

By the way, I am glad that everything worked out fine with you guys in Spain. What an ordeal!

[smoothdancer]

Not exactly what you are lookinfg for but

 

I was taken off of the ship in Mexico. The emergency arose while we were on the pacific and an earlier evacuation was not possible, too far at sea. The evacuation cost which was basically a transport from the ship to the hospital cost $200.00, while the stay in the medical center, a day and a half, cost $4,000.00. I had no travel insurance. BTW, according to our insurance company, a foregin claim on our US insurance will take about a year to process.

[Toto2Kansas]

Are you asking about medical evac by helicopter from the ship? FREE? Not that I have ever read about, no matter who did the evac.

[Coral]

I think it is rare that the coast guard or military does the medical evacuation. Those seem to be the ones that make the press.

 

I have seen many medical evacs and they were privately done and did not make the news.

[Zawmor]

I was evacuated from the Sapphire Princess when she docked in Hong Kong last October. Left Vancouver on September 8th and was evacuated in Hong Kong on October 10th. Had a heart attack that morning after breakfast!!

Was going ashore on our own but instead ended up going ashore on a stretcher and taken to the Princess Margaret Hospital there.

 

The Medical CEnter staff sould not have been nicer on the Sapphire. I was stabilized by them and everything seemed to be okay but they could take no chances since the next Port of call was in Viet Nam and Hong Kong seemed the better option.

 

Princes Margaret Hospital in Hong Kong did a great job. I was in their Coronary Care Unit - together with another passenger from the Sapphire who had suffered a more serious attack than I did! We had beds next to each other. The staff there were very efficient and we were well taken care of.

 

I had the Princess Care Insurance - thank the Lord. Don't leave home without it!! The hospital would not release me to go home until I had been there a week and then only if I was accompanied by a Doctor. Otherwise I had to stay there a month! Of course they wanted to do the usual invasive procedures - angiograms etc, but I wanted to get home and have it done there. The Insurance Providers for Princess did a marvellous job. They arranged for a Doctor to be flown in to Hong Kong and I was taken home - FIRST CLASS after a week in the hospital and a few days in a Hotel waiting for the arrangements. It was almost "bed to bed" service!! Everything was paid for. I had to pay the Hospital for my stay there and was re-imbursed later by Berkeley Care Insurance (thru Princess) . A Company called "ON-CAll" did the Air arrangements.

 

The Hospital charges were per Diem which included everything (medications, tests, Doctors fees, Nursing care - everything!) Total came to just over $8,000.00 US. The Med. Ctr Fees on the Sapphire came to just over $2,000. I was eventually re-imbursed for EVERYTHING as well as the weeks cruise I lost (HK to Bangkok)....

 

Since then I have had the angioplasty done and stents put in to two arteries and am currently in Cardiac rehab and feel great! The charges for all this were enormous (over $100,000) but thanks to our Medicare and my Secondary I wasn't out of pocket very much!!

 

All's well that ends well. Kudos to Princess Care, The Hospital in Hong Kong and the Sapphire Princess Medical staff - especially Dr Craig Wheelans - who all have my eternal thanks.

[bubbadog]

i think it costs 20,000$, for a medevac,not sure who pick-up the tab,

[smoothdancer]

Zawmor,

With this ordeal now behind you, do you have any fear of going on a cruise again?

[Zawmor]

No fears at all! In fact I am booked for the same ship (Sapphire) for the April 14th cruise rom Sydney to Los Angeles. Hope to meet up again with some of the crew members who served us on the cruise last October and whom we never got to say goodbye to.

 

Intend to take it easy, keep taking all my new medications and hope for the best. I'm sure the fine print of the Princess Care insurance says that pre-existing conditions do not qualify for their insurance, but hopefully my secondary insurance at home will cover me. As most of you know, Medicare does NOT cover anything that happens outside the US.

[Zawmor]

Oh I forgot!! I will be using all the facilities in the on board fitness center to keep up my new fitness regimen which my Cardiac Rehab class is teaching me right now.

[JackWP]

We did not have a ship evacuation, but wife had an accident and had a med flight home. In general the insurance claims were processed first by her primary health insurance, second her secondary health insurance, and then the cruise care insurance. The costs were somewhere around: 1. Care in Antigua, $650.00, covered by secondary insurance 2. Med Flight, $16,000.00, covered by cruise care 3. Hospital and Surgeons at home, $13,000, covered mostly by primary health care. 4. Trip interruption $500.00, covered by cruise care.

 

Many of the cruise care policies do not have enough medvac insurance. If we are going anywhere in Asia or Europe we do buy cruise line insurance and buy what we think we need.

 

This year we are purchasing an annual medassist policy to cover medvacs most places in the world and then buy the cruise care insurance.

[smoothdancer]

Good for you Zawmor, I am not retired yet, but no I did not know Medicare will not cover you outside of the US.

 

In November I was taken off of the ship for surgery after a absolutley horrible day an a half at sea, even with the morphine the medical staff kept me on. We had originally had a med cruise booked for 2008 and even after we got home I thought I would get past it. But just recently I cancelled this cruise just too afraid that going back on a ship will bring back to many bad memories. We are doing a land vacation this year, perhaps a cruise the following year. We have cruised every year for the past 12 years, I love this type of vacation and hope I will feel differently soon.

[dforeigner]

Ooops # 1

[dforeigner]

I believe what the OP is referring to is being transported from the ship out at sea to either the hospital or an awaiting ambulance at shore. In the US it is normally done by the USCG but recently there was an article about a 14 (or so) y/o female MEDEVAC from a Princess ship by a US Navy Helicopter and taken on board the USS Ronald Regan for an emergency appendectomy. That said, if I understand correctly, would the Navy or the USCG bill the patient for that MEDEVAC.

[dforeigner]

I believe what the OP is referring to is being transported from the ship out at sea to either the hospital or an awaiting ambulance at shore. In the US it is normally done by the USCG but recently there was an article about a 14 (or so) y/o female MEDEVAC from a Princess ship by a US Navy Helicopter and taken on board the USS Ronald Regan for an emergency appendectomy. That said, if I understand correctly, would the Navy or the USCG bill the patient for that MEDEVAC.

[drew sailbum]

Actual evacuation off a ship by helicopter (Coast Guard or private) is quite unusual. At least in the Caribbean you are normally no more than a few hours from an island at most. Even if a helicopter is within range and capable of making an evacuation flight you might still find that the ship continues to the closest (or next) port for a more orderly evacuation.

 

Here in Grand Cayman patients are regularly picked up from the cruise ship dock by ambulance. The ship's medical staff relays the information to the proper shipboard personnel to communicate with the ship's agent on shore. The ship's agent then calls 9-1-1 for the ambulance.

 

If the local hospital is not capable of providing the level of care needed, then a medical evacuation flight is set up. From Grand Cayman, American, Canadian, or European citizens are most commonly evacuated to Miami for advanced care. Some persons may be evacuated to other locations (Jamaica or Cuba) occasionally.

 

As to who pays... ultimately it is up to the patient. Even if you have trip insurance, you should expect to make payment arrangements before you leave the hospital.

[BJS]

I'm sure the fine print of the Princess Care insurance says that pre-existing conditions do not qualify for their insurance, but hopefully my secondary insurance at home will cover me. As most of you know, Medicare does NOT cover anything that happens outside the US.

Princess Travel Care insurance will cover pre-existing conditions if there have been no changes in the 60 days preceeding purchasing the insurance which can be any time from deposit to final payment. There can't be any medication changes or recommendations for new treatments. You can be on medications and as long as your conditon is stable you are covered.

 

.

[giles33]

I work in a USAF Search and Rescue unit, and the civilian rescues from a ship are usually on ships with no medical service on board (freighters, cargo, tankers, etc). And most are not helicopter rescues, usually we parachute the medics in with a zodiac and they stabilize the patient until they can be taken to a port.

[cactusrose]

Thank you all so much for your replies. Having recently experienced a situation where we had to use our travel insurance, it got me to thinking about the medical evacuation issue. Especially when you have to be evacuated at sea. Most of what I have read about the process and cost have been second hand accounts or from the brochure ware that the insurance companies put out. So I was curious if anyone on these boards has actually been evacuated at sea and what their experience has been.

 

Medical evacuation= MEDEVAC. Some people may confuse evacuated by itself with having to abandon the ship.

By the way, I am glad that everything worked out fine with you guys in Spain. What an ordeal!

 

Thank you dforeigner. We are BOTH doing fine now and just got back from a short Mexican Riviera cruise. Kind of a test run to see if DH was going to behave (LOL).

 

 

Are you asking about medical evac by helicopter from the ship? FREE? Not that I have ever read about, no matter who did the evac.

 

Toto. . . Here are two post that say the USCG does not charge. I have seen more but I'll be darned if I can find them now. Since I don’t have first hand experience, nor can I find information from anyone who has, I don’t have any reason to doubt this. I do know the USCG does not charge for rescuing swimmers and surfers (we have way too many of those around these parts) and I haven't heard of them charging to rescue people who fall off or jump off a ship so I have no reason to believe they would charge for any other type of rescue operation but maybe this has changed.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=13259752&postcount=3

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=11623058&postcount=9

 

We did not have a ship evacuation, but wife had an accident and had a med flight home. In general the insurance claims were processed first by her primary health insurance, second her secondary health insurance, and then the cruise care insurance. The costs were somewhere around: 1. Care in Antigua, $650.00, covered by secondary insurance 2. Med Flight, $16,000.00, covered by cruise care 3. Hospital and Surgeons at home, $13,000, covered mostly by primary health care. 4. Trip interruption $500.00, covered by cruise care.

Many of the cruise care policies do not have enough medvac insurance. If we are going anywhere in Asia or Europe we do buy cruise line insurance and buy what we think we need.

This year we are purchasing an annual medassist policy to cover medvacs most places in the world and then buy the cruise care insurance.

 

Jack WP. . . This is great information. All of my husbands medical expense (except $100 deductible) from ship, $2,878, hospital in Gibraltar, $928 and hospital in Spain, $15,912 was covered by our medical insurance. They will also cover air or land ambulance but in this case On Call International paid that directly so I don‘t know how much that was. However, since the cruise line insurance only pays trip interruption up to the cost of the cruise and our 24 day trip was interrupted on the 4th day only about 50% of my expenses (including a very expensive flight home) were covered. They also limit hotel and food and transportation to $100 per day. Try doing that in Europe with the dollar as weak as it is!

Even though much of what travel insurance covers is already covered under our medical and homeowners policies, we will always buy travel insurance. We too are going to purchase a MedJet Assist membership. If you are a member of AARP you get a great discount.

[cactusrose]

I work in a USAF Search and Rescue unit, and the civilian rescues from a ship are usually on ships with no medical service on board (freighters, cargo, tankers, etc). And most are not helicopter rescues, usually we parachute the medics in with a zodiac and they stabilize the patient until they can be taken to a port.

 

YOU GUYS ROCK!! I've seen footage of what you do and it is unbelievable. You must have nerves of titanium. Bless you all!

[Coral]

I have been on 6 Alaskan cruises and 3 of them had helicopter medical evacuations. They must have been serious enough that they couldn't wait to get to a port. I spoke to an officer after one of them and they said the patient was lucky to have insurance to cover it.

 

I have decided if I ever go on a trip far from home where healthcare is questionable (such as Russia, Africa) - I am buying this policy in addition to health insurance: http://www.medjetassist.com/

[Toto2Kansas]

That could be so cactusrose. But I don't think I would not get enough evac insurance hoping that it would be the USCG that might be the one in the chopper lowering the basket down to the ship. lol

I have seen many helicopter evacs over the years while onboard ships, and none were from the USCG. Scarey stuff. Heck, I would have a heart attack just being pulled up to the chopper, so maybe I had better get double insurance next time. ;)

[Pam in CA]

No fears at all! In fact I am booked for the same ship (Sapphire) for the April 14th cruise rom Sydney to Los Angeles. Hope to meet up again with some of the crew members who served us on the cruise last October and whom we never got to say goodbye to.

Zawmor, please come and join our roll call. :) You'll find the link below. We've got a great group of people going on this cruise and are planning all sorts of fun things to do and get-togethers.

[cactusrose]

That could be so cactusrose. But I don't think I would not get enough evac insurance hoping that it would be the USCG that might be the one in the chopper lowering the basket down to the ship. lol

I have seen many helicopter evacs over the years while onboard ships, and none were from the USCG. Scarey stuff. Heck, I would have a heart attack just being pulled up to the chopper, so maybe I had better get double insurance next time. ;)

 

Didn't say I wouldn't get it. If you read the rest of the post I made a point to say I would always get travel insurance and will add MedJet Assist in the future. So I definitely believe in being over insured in this area. I just find it interesting the the coast guard may not charge. I'm pretty sure the USCG don't carry a credit card machine with them.;)

[skibozo]

I just find it interesting the the coast guard may not charge. I'm pretty sure the USCG don't carry a credit card machine with them.;)

 

......but the IRS knows where to find ya!!!! :D