Appendicitis on the ship - In case you wonder what happens

[caymancouple]

In January, we were on the Celebrity Infinity that was sailing around the Horn of South America. On day 3 of the cruise, husband is complaining of his stomach hurting, described it as a knot in his stomach. We were in port, Puerto Montt, that day. He stayed in bed, but I got him to agree that at 4:00, if not feeling better we would go see the doctor on board. I stayed out of the room so he could sleep. At 3:45, I headed back to the room and found him getting dressed. When I asked if he was getting dressed because he felt better, or to go and see the doctor, and he says doctor….. well, that was my first clue this was not going to be good.

 

We saw the doctor immediately, and he says you have 2 of the seven symptoms of an appendicitis attack. He then ordered an x-ray, and blood work. My son in law back in the states is an internal medicine doc. I am texting him what is going on and he wants to know the results of a specific blood test. When the doctor comes back with the test results and tells my husband we need to get off, that something is wrong, and I text my SIL the number of that test, and he texts back …get off the ship NOW and go to a hospital….well, we got off… The ship was due to leave port in 45 minutes. They help me pack, they put us on the tender, we get to shore, and a car is waiting, they drive us to the hospital, the Celebrity Port Agent is at the hospital waiting on us at the emergency room. This guy, then spent the next 4 hours at the hospital with us, acting as our interpreter. Husband ends up having surgery, and we are in the hospital for 4 days, and then a week in a local hotel. The port agent checked on us every day, he came by, he offered to find a hotel (I had a daughter handle that), he offered to help us make flight arrangements to go home. In a nutshell, he was wonderful.

 

Once we were home, Celebrity called to make sure we were taken care of in port… just thought I would share.

 

The only heart stopping moment, is when we got to the emergency room, and they ask for my credit card in order to put a hold of 7 MILLION on it……… it was Chilean pesos, but still.

[MVPinBoynton]

Thanks so much for sharing your experience. It is very good to know how Celebrity dealt with this type situation. Sounds like they did an awesome job. So glad to hear it and glad that your husband was taken care of.

[CathyCruises]

So glad it all worked out for you. We had a similar experience on the Silhouette in the med in October. DH woke up one morning with what he thought was indigestion, we walked around Santorini most of the day, normal dinner, walked around Rhodes in the morning, still not feeling great but after lunch really feeling uncomfortable. We went to the medical office at about 2 PM and they said it was closed unless it was an emergency, we said yes we needed to see the doctor. The nurse came down and did an EKG and after she looked at the first strip she ran out of the room and got the doctor. Once the blood test came back positive for increased cardiac enzymes I was sent to our room to pack and we were taken off the ship by ambulance. DH ended up spending a week in the ICU on Rhodes and then another four days in a hotel with me. We had previously booked the constellation TA to get back home and he was actually cleared to do that. We flew into Rome the day before and caught the ship. Granted, we didn't do much and he took lots of naps but he's totally fine now and we just booked another TA for the spring. The total bill for a week in the ICU, cardiac catheterization, all the doctors visits, tests, meds, etc. came out to €3900. Our doctor here said that would've been $200,000 in the states. As in your case, the port agent was a huge help and booked me into a hotel that was oceanfront and was €35 a night!

[warmwinds]

Glad everything turned out ok...at sea is not the time to be "oh, it's nothing, it will go away".

 

Had to laugh at the 7 million pesos.

 

Did you have any travel insurance or was this all done through your own personal medical?

[Keith1010]

Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

Also a reminder about the importance of trip insurance.

Keith

[caymancouple]

Glad everything turned out ok...at sea is not the time to be "oh, it's nothing, it will go away".

 

Had to laugh at the 7 million pesos.

 

Did you have any travel insurance or was this all done through your own personal medical?

 

We carry a yearly travel insurance policy. I am retired airline, and it is geared for airline employees. We will be made completely "whole" on the costs of the medical. My husband is on Medicare, and while Medicare does not cover overseas, his supplement does cover 80%. The travel insurance will pick up the rest. As far as the other expenses we are going to not do so well there... the reason, we had a death in the family earlier in the year the day before we left on a trans Atlantic cruise, and had already claimed on it. The limit it pays is a yearly... so we are going to hit that limit, but, we won't be 'too" bad off.

 

I did learn a couple things.

We tend to only have one or two credit cards, and we don't allow a really high credit limit on them. It just so happened, the month before we left, I had applied for a new credit card, and had it with me. Had a 19K credit limit, and nothing charged on it... I did not have to blink when I handed the hospital that card. So in the future, I think I will call and up my credit limit when we leave on a major trip. Second lesson, I tend to pay for my cruises and travel with multiple cards, based on what points I am trying to accumulate. If I had paid for the entire cost of our cruise with our Citi Prestige card it would have helped with some of the loss.

[dodger1964]

Very glad it turned out ok.

 

Also very impressed with X for the way they handled situation. I don't know if port agent is employee or on his own, but that was great customer service.

 

7 mill is still about $10,000...that seems like a lot to me (based on the travel tourism costs that get thrown around), hope it ended up less!

[caymancouple]

Very glad it turned out ok.

 

Also very impressed with X for the way they handled situation. I don't know if port agent is employee or on his own, but that was great customer service.

 

7 mill is still about $10,000...that seems like a lot to me (based on the travel tourism costs that get thrown around), hope it ended up less!

 

 

It ended up being $8,900. That was EVERYTHING. Hospital, doctor, surgery. The only bad thing right now is the hospital ran that 7 million pesos, which is as you said right at 10k, on the card. They have never issued us a credit for the difference. We have filed a dispute with the credit card as we were told the difference would be refunded.

[Tommy3putts]

Wow. This is a great story. Thank you for sharing. Happy all is ok. Lesson learned: Trip Insurance.

[CCC's]

Excellent outcome for all patients and their families. And a big TICK to Celebrity and their staff for the wonderful care given during the emergency medical incidents.

 

But, when the words 7 million was quoted - now that was enough to bring on a heart attack! But a quick conversion settled any shock experienced. Phew, dodged a bullet.

[Clarea]

Thank-you for sharing.

[AmazedByCruising]

The only heart stopping moment, is when we got to the emergency room, and they ask for my credit card in order to put a hold of 7 MILLION on it……… it was Chilean pesos, but still.

 

I'm glad everything turned out OK and X and the port agent seem to have handled the situation perfectly.

 

But I also sincerely wonder what would have happened if you were not having a card with 10K available or even had no money at all? They can't send you away can they? Bothering you about money at a time when there are obviously other things on your mind seems strange.

[JMG]

Thanks for sharing and so happy that things worked out for you.

 

I have always heard that going ashore you should take with you the name of the Ship's Agent just in case something and you do not make it back to the ship. The Agent is the one that will help you make other arrangements.

[DrivesLikeMario]

JMG - Just take a picture with your cell phone of the Daily newspaper. That'll have that info. on there.

 

It sounds to me like Celebrity really did a fantastic job in handling this whole situation well. Just for them to move that quickly in getting the 2 of you off at the port before leaving was impressive. That they followed up in the end is really great too. And, thank God for good port agents!

[Kartgv]

Great story and appreciate hearing about the happy ending. I think most cruise lines take a potentially critical illness very seriously and respond quickly.

 

In 2014 on a Princess ship, we were 2 days out to sea from Tahiti, on the way to Los Angeles, when the Captain announced we had to turn back and head for the French Marquesas because of a medical emergency. Everyone immediately thought it was one of us 'older' passengers, but it turned out to be a 23 year old crew member with a ruptured appendix. We were a full 24 hours late getting back to LA. It cost Princess hundreds of thousands of $$$ before it was over, partly for extra fuel, but also for travel and accommodation reimbursements for many of the passengers on our cruise as well as the next one which was delayed by one day. We were happy to hear several days later that the crew member had made a full recovery.

[ginabab]

Caymancouple, so wonderful when a port agent can stay with you

[jules815]

JMG - Just take a picture with your cell phone of the Daily newspaper. That'll have that info. on there.

 

 

This is a great idea. I will be doing this from now on.

 

OP thank you for sharing your story, and I hope you get everything sorted out.

[Northern Aurora]

Also just wanted to say "thanks" for such an informative post. And happy to learn that all worked out well.

[sooper]

Thanks for sharing. Glad everything turned out fine.

 

Never had insurance in 30 years of traveling, this makes me rethink.

[CathyCruises]

Thanks for sharing. Glad everything turned out fine.

 

Never had insurance in 30 years of traveling, this makes me rethink.

 

Well, as it turned out in our case, it probably cost us less not have insurance. Between the deductible and co-pay I bet we would've paid more. And interestingly the hospital in Greece only asked us for a €100 deposit!

[NLH Arizona]

OP, thank you for relaying what happened. It is great to hear that Celebrity took such good care of you and your husband from the ship, who diagnosed him properly, to the port agent.

[Texed]

Cayman,

 

Thanks for posting. :)

[Sabbycat]

Wow, what a great story. It is awesome to hear how wonderful X was for you. Thank you for sharing. (and to the others who also share similar and positive experiences). Alas, we tend to only hear the negative ones and so this is a refreshing change.

[caymancouple]

Thanks for sharing. Glad everything turned out fine.

 

Never had insurance in 30 years of traveling, this makes me rethink.

 

We never bought either, till this year buying the annual policy...we travel sooo much, we always felt like we were ahead based on the cost versus the number of trips we took. But, the yearly policy is an evacuation policy. We were on a cruise talking to folks who he had been airlifted off a ship. Cost them 85K. We came home and I started looking. The policy we have has 75K in evacuation, but only 5k in medical and 2k in travel... so, while we except a small loss, we are covered for the really big cost, an evacuation if needed. The 5K medical will cover what our medicare supplement did not, and the 2k for travel, will help with the lost trip.

[north29]

And thanks for posting a positive note for a cruise line.

We are off to Africa and are now just getting our Hepatitis A and B shots, we should have done this before. We were sort of lucky, my wife, while in Cusco, Peru got violently ill and had to go to a hospital where she receive IV etc. I can tell you that it was not an american hospital, however they did a good job for her, but it was a experience.

So if you travel out side of the US or heck even in the US, you might want to consider Hepatitis A and B shots. The shots are not cheap, about $100 per shot or if you are veteran and use the VA I think they are free.