Beware of Doctor on Board

One year ago on a Wine Cruise on the Wind Surf, my husband and I experienced a nightmare that ended the 'trip of our lifetime'. Time has somewhat healed the pain we suffered, so I am just now able to write about our misfortune. On the second night of the cruise at dinner, I was in a dazed & stupor-like state. The medical team was summoned & I was taken to the infirmary. I woke up several hours later & asked what happened. The ship's doctor informed me that I had a heart attack, muscle damage to my heart and a possible stroke! My condition was 'life threatening' and I had to leave the ship as soon as possible for life saving treatment. I asked for my husband and when he arrived we both told the doctor I have always had a irregular EKG with inverted t-waves. I experienced no symptoms of a heart attack at any time that night. She refused to listen to us and told my husband to pack up the room and we would be diverted to another island not on the itinerary. She then gave me a sedative (?!) which put me to sleep for a couple of hours, just enough time to get to St. Kitts. At 5 am I was awake and coherent and again we pleaded with them to not force us off the ship. As we were removed unwillingly from the ship, we were told that even if I was cleared by the doctor in St. Kitts, we would not be able to join the cruise at the next stop over. We were heartbroken to say the least. The diagnosis after an overnight stay in St. Kitts? Dehydration and one glass of wine too many (hey, it was a wine cruise!). No heart attack, no stroke. We paid thousands of dollars in hotel bills, the flight back to Barbados, not to mention the $2000 bill for 'medical services' we were given as we were taken off the ship on top of the cost of the cruise and flight from LA! After we got home, I had time to look over the records from the ships doctor and found out that all tests she performed on me ruled out any possibility of a heart attack and this was confirmed by both my doctor and cardiologist. I had a clean bill of health from both, no history of heart attack ever. We contacted Wind Star Cruises with proof and documentation of negligence and misdiagnosis. Their stunning reply - "Sorry, we are unable to honor your request. We will not be liable for the consequences of any examination, advice, diagnosis, medication, treatment, prognosis or other professional services which a doctor or nurse may furnish or fail to furnish to you." They were unwilling to compensate us anything whatsoever for what their doctor's negligence caused us, financially and emotionally. We learned our lesson - on the next cruise we will buy insurance (although not sure how much compensation that would have been for us) and will bring along a copy of my EKG with a doctor's note testifying that I am fit & able to travel. The combination of the ship's doctor's complete misdiagnosis and Wind Star's unwillingness to accept any responsibility for that, obviously left us unwilling to ever travel with them again. Their refusal to do anything was immoral to us. Of course they could have compensated us, they were unwilling to do the right thing. Please bring a copy of your medical history along with you, no matter how insignificant it seems to you - the 'doctor' on board has the power to end your dream vacation with a misdiagnosis and no consequences for their actions. Very scary and very troubling indeed. (By the way, both the company that chartered the cruise and the winery sponsoring the cruise went way above and beyond what they had to do, to make up for what happened in the best way they could - good honorable people/company.)

I'm sorry I just couldn't get through that. Next time, try hitting the "return" key a few times to make paragraphs. It makes for a much easier read.

From what I did read, it appears you had a medical problem, were taken off the ship, and then had to go home, and I think you said Windstar did not compensate you for any of your missed cruise.

Unfortunately, that's the way it is. I couldn't say the "doctor was negligent". It sounds as if they were just trying to take care of you, but you didn't like the manner in which they did this. Luckily, you were alright and made it home safely, but the doctor on Windstar doesn't know your medical history and has limited medical facilities to treat emergencies.

They did what was safest for you and the other passengers. Any other cruise line would have taken you off the ship.

If this was a chartered cruise, you paid the company that chartered the ship, didn't you? Not Windstar directly. So, did this company provide any type of compensation? What else did you want?

With your medical history, I am really surprised you did not purchase travel insurance. Most policies would have covered you for your extra expenses. Before you travel again, I suggest you go to insuremytrip.com and compare policies. Note carefully the "pre-existing" clauses because they may apply to you.

Hopefully, your next trip, whatever it is, will go more smoothly.

I read this post totaly differently than you. If all the tests for heart problems were negative, especially in warm weather on a wine cruise, the Dr. should have to compensate for her mistake.

I have had the need to be seen by a ship's doctor once, and have nothing but praise for her. They must be ready at a moment's notice to render treatment for practically anything that can go wrong with a body.

Obviously something significant enough happened to you for medical personnel to be summoned in the first place. You admit you were in a dazed and stupor-like state. Enough so you apparently passed 'out'. You have a history of abnormal EKG and the doctor found this. She only has your current symptoms and your current EKG to go by. She does NOT have your cardiologist nor a neurologist in her pocket to tell her all is well.

Your health was in her hands. It wasn't a scratch she could stitch up and send you on your merry way. Dazed, stupor, abnormal heart rhythm... these are NOT insignificant pesky little things! Of course she wants you off her ship with it's limited technology and in a facility where you can be taken care of by highly trained specialists utilizing precision technology.

As for bringing a 'doctor's note' along... if you're truly having a heart attack do you really want your husband to be shoving some piece of paper under the doctor's nose telling him/her that you're fine? Many people are 'fine' right up until the time the fall over dead from a heart attack, stroke, brain hemorrhage, or whatever. And any doctor worth their medical degree will treat an emergency based upon current symptoms, not what some physician wrote out a week, a month, or even a day before. That'll go into consideration, but it's not going to be the defining factor for your treatment.

Not only that, the doctor isn't the one with ultimate authority of the ship and it's passengers. The captain is. And the captain is not likely to ignore symptoms such as yours, either.

Buy insurance, as you said. If the doctor puts you off the ship for a medical reason, it WILL pay.

Thanks for your replies and I'm sorry it was long, this was my first post. This wasn't my first cruise, it was my 19th cruise and the first time I had experienced anything like this before.

The reason I was in the state I was in was due to dehydration after a very hot/humid & active day on Dominica and like I said, one glass of wine too many. The doctor never even bothered to test my blood alcohol content (on a wine cruise no less!). There are many details I did not provide - such as the Cardiac Triple Enzyme test that came back negative and ruled out the possibility of a heart attack. My doctor at home said that my EKG 'would raise an eyebrow, but with an explanation from the patient would not be a concern.' Simply put, the doctor rushed to judgement and when the tests came back after she made the decision to divert the ship, she didn't have the guts to admit her misdiagnosis. Giving me a sedative after she stated I had a heart attack/possible stroke was obviously done to quiet me since I was awake and coherent and asking questions - the IV's had rehydrated me to the point that I was fine.

I totally understand being prudent and cautious when evaluating a medical situation, but when you make a diagnosis and everything comes back disproving your diagnosis, you certainly don't stick with what you know is not the case - unless you have to answer to the ship why the patient you deemed in dire medical condition is suddenly awake and just fine. At no time did I suffer any symptoms of a heart attack, none whatsoever. The hospital in St. Kitts was what you would expect in a Third World Country, the nightmare continued on until I was released the next day, totally 100% fine physically. I would not wish that on my worst enemy.

We lost our trip of a lifetime, and we lost a lot of money. All based on a obvious misdiagnosis that could have been rectified. I don't want that to happen to anyone. I will never forgive her for telling my husband that I was close to death - no one should have to go through that. Imagine the bittersweet feeling of finding out I was 100% fine and never had a heart attack, of Windstar hiding behind their 'policy' and not doing the right thing. I hope this makes people aware that the doctor holds all the cards, even if they are know they are wrong. I truly would have been better off if I was just taken back to our cabin, had water and slept it off!

Thanks for letting me share my 'sad' story with you all.

In my opinion, you could have a law suit. From what you wrote, the physician misdiagnosed and mistreated you. Giving a sedative to a patient having a heart attack could easily make the situation worse. So if she thought you were having heart problems, that is malpractice. The cruise line cannot be expected to overrule the doctor's opinion, but given that you provided them with written documentation, they should have found some way to compensate you. We have been on Windstar on several occasions and always thought they resolved issues fairly

I am from Australia and the first thing our Travel Agents and Government say, if we are travelling to another country, especially the US, is to take out travel insurance especiallywith regard to health as there can be crippling costs attached to getting ill.

We are not a particularly litiguous society but if it was me I would be thankfull that the doctor erred on the side of caution and you were OK. You were unwell otherwise why did you go to the doctor?

I will be taking my first Windstar cruise on the Wind Spirit in May and I hope I only meet the doctor socially but if not I will have adequate insurance to cover any unexpected consequences.

Dont expect the Cruise Line to compensate you however the Doctors private insurance might. Try a good faith effort 1st with the Doctors Insurance Co.

have a lawyer write it, IMO don't try for a big settlement unless you are forced to sue, remember a lawyer will take 1/2, a letter might cost you $100-$200.00.

In my opinion, you could have a law suit. From what you wrote, the physician misdiagnosed and mistreated you. Giving a sedative to a patient having a heart attack could easily make the situation worse. So if she thought you were having heart problems, that is malpractice.

And you work in the medical and/or legal field? Sorry, this is not good advice. Most people watch far too much television. This is not the way medical malpractice cases work. I would add, we have only the OP's side of this story. We haven't seen her medical records or heard the doctor's side. Just reading exactly what OP wrote, it appears the doctor provided the "standard of care" for OP's apparent condition. And when that is done, there is no basis for any lawsuit.

Also, OP did not suffer any physical problems due to the doctor's care. Her condition was not made worse. Her complaint is that she was transferred to a land based hospital, and thus, missed her cruise. I cannot possibly think anyone would consider that malpractice.

Dont expect the Cruise Line to compensate you however the Doctors private insurance might. Try a good faith effort 1st with the Doctors Insurance Co.

have a lawyer write it, IMO don't try for a big settlement unless you are forced to sue, remember a lawyer will take 1/2, a letter might cost you $100-$200.00.

1. OP suffered this incident over a year ago. They now cannot file a medical malpractice action, as the time limit for filing is past.

2. The cruise line's insurance covers the doctor.

3. In addition, in a medical malpractice case, taken on a contingency basis, attorneys usually get 1/3 of what is collected.

My best advice to OP is next time purchase a good travel insurance policy.

Thanks again for your posts. Silly me, my EKG had never been an issue before this cruise and I was perfectly healthy, maybe thought I was invincible, and never thought I would need to buy travel insurance. I sure learned my lesson the hard way, expensive way, although I still am not sure what and how much would have been compensated. You all can be sure I will never travel again without it!

I did contact a lawyer and found that the 'doctor's' on cruise ships are Independent Contractors, so the ship does not have any liability for their actions - a little scary. My physician told me you don't find 'cream of the crop' doctors on a cruise ship. My attorney told me the only successful way to sue them would be to have a Board Certified Cardiologist willing to testify that the doctor was guilty of gross negligence. That would be hard to prove in court, with the cruise ships coming up on the winning side at least 90% of the time. Again. lesson learned.

Just a couple more things about what the doctor did and didn't do: The Cardiac Triple Enzyme test which came back negative ruling out a heart attack is usually only given if the patient experiences chest pain and shortness of breath, which I had neither. I asked Windstar if the doctor knew how to read the results of the tests she performed on me. (No answer.) I was also given a General Chemistry test and a Complete Blood count test, which both came back completely normal. She put a Nitroglycerin Patch on me which is used to prevent chronic chest pain caused by heart disease (no chest pain, no heart disease) and it should not be given if you have had alcoholic beverages! She also gave me something called Metoprolol which is used to treat high blood pressure - I have never had high blood pressure in my life - side effects of this drug can cause shortness of breath or a rapid pounding or irregular heartbeat. This in addition to the sedative. It just goes on and on. Also the dates and times on all her reports were all off - the date of the General Chemistry was 11-15-10 at 4:50 a.m. and the patient was a male! I was there on 2-14-2010 between 8:30-9:00 pm until we were removed from the ship. The time on the blood test was 8:05 before I was even taken to the infirmary. The test showing I had no heart attack was done at 11 p.m., about an hour before they decided to divert the ship. I guess I should feel lucky I got out of there alive after what she did to me in there!

I imagine it chalks up to this: I was in the wrong place, at the wrong time, with the wrong doctor and the wrong diagnosis and treatment. All I actually needed was to be hydrated and rest. The good thing is that I am healthy and alive, for that I am grateful every day. I am still bewildered by Windstars refusal to compensate us in any way for what happened. They certainly could have but chose not to. Windstar is not an honorable company in our eyes.

Well regarding cream of the crop Doctors I can only speak about one.

I know him and while he is not a Brain Surgeon I know him from work in the Emergency Room and there is nothing that I would not trust him with for myself or my family, he now works for HAL. You paint with a wide brush or at least your Doctor does.

I am still bewildered by Windstars refusal to compensate us in any way for what happened. They certainly could have but chose not to. Windstar is not an honorable company in our eyes.

You haven't said what you received from the company that handled the charter, and from the winery sponsoring the cruise. What are you looking for from Windstar?

I'd have to disagree about them not being an "honorable" company. We had two cruises cancelled in a row, and they certainly acted "honorably" in making this as right as they could for us.

For what it is worth- we were on Windstar many years ago in the Greek islands (1992 I think?) At any rate, we met the Dr. on board socially (fortunately!).

He had his wife traveling with him. He seemed like a pleasant and competent Dr. although obviously I can't judge competency without any true interaction.

However- he did say that he ALWAYS takes out travel insurance for his wife when she sails with him. If I remember correctly the conversation was something like "I've seen so many people have their vacations ruined with medical costs- no way would we ever get on board without her being covered." Apparently Windstar covered his medical costs should any arise.

We were already believers in medical coverage for various reasons- but that sure "sealed the deal" so to speak. His point was that the most important coverage to have is evacuation. We've had insurance for every cruise since (about nine or ten?) and needed it for some small things. Still glad we had it- as they say, never leave home without it.

Others disagree and choose to self-insure. Each to his own, I'd rather not have the stress of worrying about it.

Still hard to believe that after all the cruises you say you have been on, you didn't purchase insurance. To me, that's negligence to the fullest.

Thanks for your replies and I'm sorry it was long, this was my first post. This wasn't my first cruise, it was my 19th cruise and the first time I had experienced anything like this before.

 

The reason I was in the state I was in was due to dehydration after a very hot/humid & active day on Dominica and like I said, one glass of wine too many. The doctor never even bothered to test my blood alcohol content (on a wine cruise no less!). There are many details I did not provide - such as the Cardiac Triple Enzyme test that came back negative and ruled out the possibility of a heart attack. My doctor at home said that my EKG 'would raise an eyebrow, but with an explanation from the patient would not be a concern.' Simply put, the doctor rushed to judgement and when the tests came back after she made the decision to divert the ship, she didn't have the guts to admit her misdiagnosis. Giving me a sedative after she stated I had a heart attack/possible stroke was obviously done to quiet me since I was awake and coherent and asking questions - the IV's had rehydrated me to the point that I was fine.

 

I totally understand being prudent and cautious when evaluating a medical situation, but when you make a diagnosis and everything comes back disproving your diagnosis, you certainly don't stick with what you know is not the case - unless you have to answer to the ship why the patient you deemed in dire medical condition is suddenly awake and just fine. At no time did I suffer any symptoms of a heart attack, none whatsoever. The hospital in St. Kitts was what you would expect in a Third World Country, the nightmare continued on until I was released the next day, totally 100% fine physically. I would not wish that on my worst enemy.

 

We lost our trip of a lifetime, and we lost a lot of money. All based on a obvious misdiagnosis that could have been rectified. I don't want that to happen to anyone. I will never forgive her for telling my husband that I was close to death - no one should have to go through that. Imagine the bittersweet feeling of finding out I was 100% fine and never had a heart attack, of Windstar hiding behind their 'policy' and not doing the right thing. I hope this makes people aware that the doctor holds all the cards, even if they are know they are wrong. I truly would have been better off if I was just taken back to our cabin, had water and slept it off!

 

Thanks for letting me share my 'sad' story with you all.

It isn't clear from this post and your first one - this was your 19th cruise and you did not purchase medical and evacuation insurance. What if it had really been a heart attack or something else? Medical and evacuation insurance i really cheap - we pay about $450 for 2 people for a policy that covers us for any and all trips we take over a whole year.

DON

Wow, did not expect the tone of some of those replies. I am happy that you bought insurance and never had to go through what we did, I would never wish that on anyone. I mentioned that we learned our lesson the hard way about whether to buy insurance or not. We made a mistake, but that doesn't take away the fact that the doctor on the ship also made many mistakes that cost us more than you will ever know. I guess it would be very hard to try and imagine what we went through, it truly was a living nightmare for days, and though time heals, it is still with us today.

The charter company and the winery, like I said, went out of their way to try and make up for the loss of the cruise. I do not feel it would be appropriate to tell everyone what they did for us, let's just say it was a very nice gesture on both their parts - something to say they were sorry for what happened to us. That meant so much to us.

Someone asked, "What did you want from Windstar?" Initially we asked for the cost of the cruise and the infirmary bill. Additionally we asked for travel costs as well. Remember, we were the ones who lost our trip due to the doctor's rush to judgement & misdiagnosis. I'm sure there are very competent doctor's on other cruise ships, I wish there was one on ours.

Thanks again for all the input. I believe I have said pretty much all there is to say. Fortunately, this has not taken away the pleasures of cruising for all time for us. We have a wonderful cruise planned for next year, and yes, we did buy insurance! Happy cruising everyone, and stay safe & healthy!

Sometimes in life stuff just happens. We go on these cruises, especially the smaller ones for a sense of adventure. You hope nothing bad happens but lets be realistic. We are often hundreds of miles away from any real medical help. In your case I would have been happy to error on the side of caution.

I can give you a flip side to this. We were on Windstar cruising Costa Rica a couple of years ago. A guy in his late 50's was on board. We found out later he had some health issues around his heart. Came on the cruise anyway. He had minor incident, don't know the details, and pushed the doctor to let him continue on the cruise instead of seeking medical help while we were in port. Day later while we were at sea heading to our next port he had a real heart attack. We had to turn around and head back to shore. The rest of us lost a port and a half from out trip. The guy was air lifted to hospital and survived. The rest of this had a major disruption to our holiday. We sucked it up and didn't complain. You could argue the doctor misdiagnosed and should have forced him to seek help while we were in port.

Perhaps it is even related to your trip. Pehaps Windstar put direction to their doctors not to take chances so this sort of emergancy is avoided.

What ever the case as long no one dies from the doctor's decision, I won't play Monday morning QB when they error of the side of caution.

I advise everyone to please take the insurance...if you need to be arilifted home for any reason.. the cost is the the thousands... and your normal insurance will NOT cover the cost.

You sound like a very wise person and I will take that advise...TY

We've had trip insurance on every trip and have had to cancel twice, once for complications of knee replacement surgery and once for the 2nd passenger for a broken ankle...got complete replacement costs. Document all your pre-trip charges. If I had the symptoms reported above, I hope that a doctor would err on the side of caution, especially since seeing my doctor re pre-Costa Rica/Panama trip illness prophylaxis...polio boosters, MMP, DTAP, typhoid and malaria...some serious illnesses begin with symptoms resembling the ones reported above, and no ship doctor has the lab equipment necessary to rule them out. So sorry about the out of pocket. So good to know your health is unimpaired.

As a Registered Nurse who has worked in both the hospital and office settings, I can assure you the Dr. did nothing wrong in this situation. Unfortunately, because you were on vacation, you were hoping the Dr. would maybe use a little more flexibility in his judgement, but due to our litigious society, Drs can no longer afford to not be prudent in their assessment of patients. He did the correct thing in assuming that your situation could be worse than presenting. If you had been at home and had gone to the hospital, it may have been a little different because you could follow up with your home Dr. once discharged from the hospital, but at sea and in a foreign country, it is always best to err on the side of caution. The ships may have necessary emergency equipment and some medications available, but this would be equivalent to seeing if an ambulance could treat you and not expect you to be transported elsewhere for further evaluation, unless it could be proven you were "cured" of whatever caused the issue. It's best to get you to a full medical facility for stabilization, assessment and then a trip home if necessary. A legal case against this physician would be dropped as there is no intent to "harm" the patient, or negligence in this case as it was presented here. Your best interest was on his mind, which is what I would want given any potential medical situation at sea. It's just unfortunate that this occurred during your vacation. Hope you are feeling well now and can look forward to another vacation.

One year ago on a Wine Cruise on the Wind Surf, my husband and I experienced a nightmare that ended the 'trip of our lifetime'.

Hope you are feeling well now and can look forward to another vacation.

OP posted this in Feb 2012, and is writing about an incident that took place over a year before that. Since she was one of those "one post wonders" who signs up, complains and then moves along, who knows?