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Heart Attack on Board Eclipse in South America


johhnnyt
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Generally I think we all are much more Celebrity Critics than we are Celebrity Compliments, so thought I would share this. To me it's one of the reasons why Celebrity keeps my loyalty. It shows me again and again that sometimes it's the things you DON'T see/affect you that matter the most

Celebrity Eclipse March 24th Sailing

Day 3 of a 15 night cruise (next port Lima Peru ~.1.5 days out))  about 10-12 of us had gotten together in a smallish conference room for a small celebration. During the get together one in our group started convulsing and stopped breathing & he turned blue. Luckily no one panicked and we took the right steps

  • We called the emergency number on the phone
  • We flagged down a nearby ships officer who used his mobile to alert everyone that needed to be notified 
  • We cleared the room of chairs and got the man on the floor and started cpr, and after about a minute he started breathing again

Within about 2-2.5 minutes, about a half dozen senior officers , a doctor, and a nurse arrived on the scene with a gurney to move the man to medical. We would find out that the plan was to move him off in Lima, Peru. Until then he would be kept stable and monitored in the ships hospital. We were just glad he was breathing and even making jokes the next day, even though he realized how serious it was.

      Celebrity has a policy of "No one is left behind" so a member of the specially trained  "care team" was left with the afflicted gentleman and wife in Peru. She arranged for a hotel for the wife (The care team member stayed in an adjoining room at the hotel), and stayed with her for the next three days, providing comfort and translating everything since not a lot of the people in the hospital spoke English, and neither of the couple spoke Spanish.

      She would tell us later on that Erica (the Guest Relations Care Team Member) was their "true angel", and they really don't know what they would have done without her. The human resources manager on Eclipse (Kathleen I think her name was) also checked in with all of us individually to see how we all were doing after it all happened, and to see if we needed anything.

      The couple was medevaced home  and Erica returned to Guest Relations after 4 days in Peru. He still has some medical battles ahead at home, but the whole team both onboard and shoreside showed genuine compassion, and really treated them both like they were family members, not just cruisers. When I returned home I was recounting the story to a friend, and she said "when I hear of a company go above and beyond obligations, and treat people like that it restores my faith"

     

      

       

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Wow...good to know help is there when needed.  Thank you for sharing this...and we  send prayers for the gentleman' s full recovery and best wishes to his family....very traumatic anywhere, esp  so far from home.

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Nice work that you and your friends started CPR so quickly - that probably made a huge difference! And kudos to Celebrity personnel for their care of the guest and support of all around him! I hope that all goes well and that your friend will make it back onboard again!

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Thanks for starting this thread. That’s a frightening scenario for anyone, especially someone far from home. The poor guy was very fortunate to have friends who knew CPR and reacted swiftly. And what a blessing Celebrity’s policy must have seemed  to both he and his wife. Hopefully, he’ll recover completely. 

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Thank you for sharing, and I hope that your friend is doing well.  This is certainly the kind of information that needs to be passed along, and is very comforting to know about the level of care he received.

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2 hours ago, johhnnyt said:

 

 

Thanks for sharing a good story to hear.  We have seen similar situations on planes and have the same feelings of loyalty to Delta Airlines.  I hope you're friend has a successful recovery.

 

I also hope that he purchased travel insurance for medical and evacuation expenses.  He's looking at tens of thousands of dollars from this.  WAY above the ten grand that you get from the coverage included in policies sold by cruise companies and most credit card plans.

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This story reminds me of another recent thread where I learned there were AED's onboard.  One outside OceanView cafe and one at Guest Relations reported on that thread.  I plan on paying more attention to noticing where these may be located on my next sailings.

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I started that other thread on AED's.

 

johhnnyt-  Thank you so much for sharing this story.  Makes DH and I feel a little better about taking a cruise now that we know DH has a serious heart issue.

 

We hope that your friend recoveries successively and quickly.  😉🙏

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Thanks for sharing about the above  and beyond of the staff. 

 

We always acknowledge how the officers are very visible and always mingling with the passengers as one of the reasons why we like sailing with Celebrity and your report shows that they really do care.

 

happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

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This reminds me of a similar situation with my parents, two years ago on Connie.   They are both in their 80’s and were sailing Abu Dhabi through the Suez Canal to Rome (Civitavechia) but my father was taken ill during the Red Sea sea days. He ended up in the ship’s medical centre with a diagnosis of a stroke or pneumonia (which was later found to be a chest infection, but that’s not the point here). Celebrity contacted my brother to say my father was ill and he and my mother were being discharged at Aqaba, Jordan for specialist hospital care. While we were obviously concerned about our father we were more so for our mother, who although well travelled, was going to be left in a country so different in many respects like culture, language, customs etc. Fortunately, Celebrity’s service kicked in and we were told Liliana (normally one of the Dining Room team) would be accompanying them. Liliana became our, and my mother’s, ‘true angel’. After my father was put in hospital she got my mother and herself booked into an Aqaba hotel and then kept me and my brother well informed along the way. As it happened my father had a chest infection, which 48 hours on steroids seemed to clear. So, after 2 days in Aqaba My parents and Liliana were flying to Athens to rejoin the ship before sailing on to Rome (they weren’t going to give up their free drinks package that easily!!). 

 

My mother was so thankful for Liliana’s help and support and would have been lost without her. So another well done story for X.

Edited by Newbury newbie
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I also had an incident on a recent cruise where Celebrity rose above and beyond their duty. While on a cruise in Feb. on the Equinox we were informed that a close member of our family passed away. We were in Aruba and needed to get home. Guest Services checked for flights ,booked  them ,checked us in, and assisted us with Customs and departing the ship in a orderly fashion. They also followed up with an adjustment in credit  for partial cruise and refund of unused OBC. This is one reason why we continue to cruise with X or RCL. Unlike  another line we tried, we have always got satisfaction if a problem arose, which was rare. We will continue to stick with a winner!

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Thanks for sharing.

Medical and evacuation insurance should be of primary importance when traveling to foreign ports.

Most of our travels to date have been to Caribbean, Hawaii, Alaska and Panama Canal so I have NOT paid as close attention to the insurance as I should have. My bad.

Our future cruises will be further away.  I am now paying very close attention to the the medical and evacuation insurance requirements I think I will need for these future cruises.

Medical limits can be very critical especially if hospitalized for a period of time and/or needing serious operation/medical treatment.

Is medical insurance primary coverage?  Secondary coverage?

Who pays at time of service?  If you have to pay and then seek reimbursement, this could be a lot of money up front (possibly ten of thousands of dollars).

Evacuation insurance is also important.  Evacuation to where? closest hospital in a foreign country? Back to home country?

Who makes evacuation decisions?  Doctor in foreign country?  Insurance company?

Also again who pays at time of service?  I have heard of evacuations costing $10,000 to $50,000 or more depending on situation.

I will also be researching Med Jet Assist.  As I understand, if hospitalized and stable, YOU make decisions on evacuation (not insurance company) as to where and when (ie back to your home country, city etc.).

Understanding this insurance BEFORE you need it is imperative.  I MISTAKE COULD BE VERY EXPENSIVE.

Safe Travels,

Bob

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18 hours ago, Silkroad said:

Thanks for starting this thread. That’s a frightening scenario for anyone, especially someone far from home. The poor guy was very fortunate to have friends who knew CPR and reacted swiftly. And what a blessing Celebrity’s policy must have seemed  to both he and his wife. Hopefully, he’ll recover completely. 

I wish I could say any of us did have some CPR training, but the reality was a few of us the generalities of it, and got real lucky.

 

1 hour ago, Ravbo said:

Thanks for sharing.

Medical and evacuation insurance should be of primary importance when traveling to foreign ports.

Most of our travels to date have been to Caribbean, Hawaii, Alaska and Panama Canal so I have NOT paid as close attention to the insurance as I should have. My bad.

Our future cruises will be further away.  I am now paying very close attention to the the medical and evacuation insurance requirements I think I will need for these future cruises.

Medical limits can be very critical especially if hospitalized for a period of time and/or needing serious operation/medical treatment.

Is medical insurance primary coverage?  Secondary coverage?

Who pays at time of service?  If you have to pay and then seek reimbursement, this could be a lot of money up front (possibly ten of thousands of dollars).

Evacuation insurance is also important.  Evacuation to where? closest hospital in a foreign country? Back to home country?

Who makes evacuation decisions?  Doctor in foreign country?  Insurance company?

Also again who pays at time of service?  I have heard of evacuations costing $10,000 to $50,000 or more depending on situation.

I will also be researching Med Jet Assist.  As I understand, if hospitalized and stable, YOU make decisions on evacuation (not insurance company) as to where and when (ie back to your home country, city etc.).

Understanding this insurance BEFORE you need it is imperative.  I MISTAKE COULD BE VERY EXPENSIVE.

Safe Travels,

Bob

I agree with you Bob, I know he didn't have any evacuation insurance but it did become a topic for all in our group a few days later. I know this year I bought a annual medical travel plan through Allianz ($50K evacuation/$500000 medical), hopefully I'll never need it, but the $250 a year seemed reasonable. 

 

5 hours ago, puppycanducruise said:

Thanks for sharing your story.

Nice to know Celebrity is there to help.

Hope your friend recovers quickly.

Thanks to all for the good health wishes, he's a good man and has a long road ahead to good health, just glad he's home.

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Last April, DW suffered a serious leg injury while we were on a beach in Nha Trang, Vietnam.  I immediately rendered emergency first aid to stop some arterial bleeding and made a decision to take her back to the ship (Golden Princess) rather then a local Vietnamese hospital.  The onboard physician did a wonderful job but eventually DW had to go to a hospital in Osaka, Japan for outpatient surgery.  We had extensive phone discussions between myself, the ships doctor and our insurance case manager (located in Philadelphia).  It was finally decided that it would be best (medically) to evacuate DW home for further treatment.  Because of the nature of her injury it was agreed that she needed to fly in a lay-flat position.  A last minute Business Class (lay flat seat) on Delta cost our insurance company approximately $10,000!  If Delta had refused to fly her home (this does happen as it completely up to the discretion of the pilot) the cost to fly her home would have easily exceeded $50,000.  As to who made the decision on evacuation, it was a joint effort (and negotiation) between the ship's physician, DW and myself, and the Insurance companies Case Manager assigned to our case.  As one who spend a few years working in emergency medicine (Paramedic) I can tell you that many of these type decisions are a matter of teamwork and a lot of coordination.   And all this happens while the patient (and family) is under extreme distress and anxiety.  

 

I mention this to point out that having decent medical coverage is very important unless you want to go to the poor house!  Many of the travel policies sold by cruise lines do not have sufficient limits (IMHO).  In our case, we have an annual travel medical plan that gives us $250,000 of medical and $500,000 of evacuation.  And yes, our insurance did pay nearly all the bills (eventually).

 

Hank

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Once, on the first Caribbean sailing of the Silly out of Bayonne, while we were at our Meet and Greet ( over 100 were there)  someone got bit...didn't know how but since the ship just hit the states and the trees and greenery etc were loaded at the port...and that person was admiring the plants.....anyway...to make a long story short...it was discovered that he was bit by a brown recluse spider.  Celebrity went all over the ships new greenery and took his cabin apart....treated his bite....first stop was St Thomas and the hospital there told him that the Ship clinic did what any hospital would have done and they really saved his bite from spreading....freak accident but true.

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