Medical Evac Question

[travelplus]

We were on the Tampa-Amsterdam Brilliance TA last April and there was a medical evacuation about day two into our sailing. The passenger was taken to a Hospital and then rejoined the cruise. My question is how did this occur as I thought when you are Medically Evacuated you are "checked out " of your cabin if the family goes.  How did Royal work with the passenger to rejoin the itinerary?   I believe they flew to the Azores and reboarded the ship.

I thought once you have been Medically Evacuated off the ship you would not be allowed to reboard due to restrictions from Doctors and liability.

 

Has there ever been stories of people being Medically Evacuated off the ship and fly to a port and reboard the ship? How does Royal deal with checking the passengers back into the same or different stateroom with regards to the Manifest?  I thought the Sea Pass Account becomes deactivated so thus a new reservation would have to be made.  Also is interporting allowed in this situation whereby there is no violation of a passenger boarding in the Azores traveling to Amsterdam?

 

Thanks.

[loudbmw]

My wife broke her ankle just outside the pier in Cozumel.  We got a wheel chair and took to medical aboard the ship.  After X-Rays, the ship's doctor determined that she needed to go to the local hospital via ambulance for further treatment.  Passports in hand, our seapass was confiscated as we left the ship.

 

The pier agent met us at the hospital while my wife was evaluated by the Cozumel ER medical staff.  They determined that while my wife required surgery, it could wait until we returned home to the states.  The pier agent drove us back to the ship minutes before its scheduled departure. 

 

Security would not return our seapass cards or let us back on board on until the ship's doctor reviewed the hospital discharge instructions.  Thankfully the ship's doctor accepted the shore side evaluation that she was OK to travel and we boarded just as they pulled up the gangway.  Ships medical did a wonderful job caring for my wife for the balance of the cruise.  Wife had surgery at home and is now fine.

 

Some lessons learned.  Always have the pier agent's phone number when going ashore.  It's in the cruise compass.  Have medical/evacuation insurance.  GeoBlue reimbursed us for the ambulance, hospital ER and ship medical charges.

[chengkp75]

3 hours ago, travelplus said:

We were on the Tampa-Amsterdam Brilliance TA last April and there was a medical evacuation about day two into our sailing. The passenger was taken to a Hospital and then rejoined the cruise. My question is how did this occur as I thought when you are Medically Evacuated you are "checked out " of your cabin if the family goes.  How did Royal work with the passenger to rejoin the itinerary?   I believe they flew to the Azores and reboarded the ship.
So, what if they are "checked out" of their cabin.  Its not like the ship can sell that cabin to someone else for the remainder of the cruise, so it will be vacant until/if they return.  The arrangements for return are dealt with via the ship's agent who keeps the ship advised of the passenger's status.
I thought once you have been Medically Evacuated off the ship you would not be allowed to reboard due to restrictions from Doctors and liability.

As noted in the above post, if the evacuation did not result in a condition where the passenger is not cleared to travel, then they can return.

Has there ever been stories of people being Medically Evacuated off the ship and fly to a port and reboard the ship? How does Royal deal with checking the passengers back into the same or different stateroom with regards to the Manifest?  I thought the Sea Pass Account becomes deactivated so thus a new reservation would have to be made.  Also is interporting allowed in this situation whereby there is no violation of a passenger boarding in the Azores traveling to Amsterdam?

The passenger manifest does not show the cabin number of each passenger, so if someone returns, they are simply added back onto the manifest, just as if they had simply missed the ship and flew to the next port.  Why wouldn't interporting (though this is not really interporting) be allowed, since as you say there is no cabotage violation involved?

Thanks.

 

[Joseph2017China]

8 hours ago, travelplus said:

We were on the Tampa-Amsterdam Brilliance TA last April and there was a medical evacuation about day two into our sailing. The passenger was taken to a Hospital and then rejoined the cruise. My question is how did this occur as I thought when you are Medically Evacuated you are "checked out " of your cabin if the family goes.  How did Royal work with the passenger to rejoin the itinerary?   I believe they flew to the Azores and reboarded the ship.

I thought once you have been Medically Evacuated off the ship you would not be allowed to reboard due to restrictions from Doctors and liability.

 

Has there ever been stories of people being Medically Evacuated off the ship and fly to a port and reboard the ship? How does Royal deal with checking the passengers back into the same or different stateroom with regards to the Manifest?  I thought the Sea Pass Account becomes deactivated so thus a new reservation would have to be made.  Also is interporting allowed in this situation whereby there is no violation of a passenger boarding in the Azores traveling to Amsterdam?

 

Thanks.

When a passenger "misses" the ship, they usually can board at the next port.  The ship logs that you are not currently on the ship.  However, in the case of medical, a hospital clears you to travel there is no reason why you can't rejoin the ship.  There are thousands of reasons why you need medical treatment, and each one is unique. 

[lcat02143]

I was on a cruise with extended family.  We were travelling from Boston to Canada.  While in Halifax my father suffered a medical emergency and was taken by ambulance to the hospital in Halifax.  My mother and I were driven to the hospital by the port agent who gave us his contact info.  The rest of the family remained on board.  Once in the ambulance the paramedics determined my fathers condition was caused by a dangerously low blood sugar and they administered glucagon.  By the time we arrived at the hospital he was already much better.  To ensure it was safe to travel they ran many tests.  We missed the ship sailing.  

 

The port agent arranged a room for us at a hotel near the hospital.  Later that evening dad was discharged and we spent the night at the hotel.  The next morning the agent helped us arrange transportation to the next port, which was thankfully only a few hour car ride.  He notified the ship and security met us and we were allowed to re-board.  We needed to show that the Dr. medically cleared him to continue the trip.  I was greatly impressed with how RCCL and the port agent handled the situation and gave assistance, not so impressed with the Ships medical staff.

[flamingos]

14 hours ago, loudbmw said:

My wife broke her ankle just outside the pier in Cozumel.  We got a wheel chair and took to medical aboard the ship.  After X-Rays, the ship's doctor determined that she needed to go to the local hospital via ambulance for further treatment.  Passports in hand, our seapass was confiscated as we left the ship.

 

The pier agent met us at the hospital while my wife was evaluated by the Cozumel ER medical staff.  They determined that while my wife required surgery, it could wait until we returned home to the states.  The pier agent drove us back to the ship minutes before its scheduled departure. 

 

Security would not return our seapass cards or let us back on board on until the ship's doctor reviewed the hospital discharge instructions.  Thankfully the ship's doctor accepted the shore side evaluation that she was OK to travel and we boarded just as they pulled up the gangway.  Ships medical did a wonderful job caring for my wife for the balance of the cruise.  Wife had surgery at home and is now fine.

 

Some lessons learned.  Always have the pier agent's phone number when going ashore.  It's in the cruise compass.  Have medical/evacuation insurance.  GeoBlue reimbursed us for the ambulance, hospital ER and ship medical charges.

 

We just found out about GeoBlue and will be getting it before our next cruise. I'm glad to see that you had a good experience with them.

[cindivan]

13 hours ago, flamingos said:

 

We just found out about GeoBlue and will be getting it before our next cruise. I'm glad to see that you had a good experience with them.

 

Thanks for the heads up about geoblue. They are very reasonable I think. About $88 for DH and me, $137 if you add our 3 kids for a week cruise.   That would easily pay for itself when we had to get tamiflu onboard a few years back at $200 each per Rx.   I did notice a max age of 84 when I tried to quote it for my parents. 

[SRF]

20 hours ago, lcat02143 said:

I was on a cruise with extended family.  We were travelling from Boston to Canada.  While in Halifax my father suffered a medical emergency and was taken by ambulance to the hospital in Halifax.  My mother and I were driven to the hospital by the port agent who gave us his contact info.  The rest of the family remained on board.  Once in the ambulance the paramedics determined my fathers condition was caused by a dangerously low blood sugar and they administered glucagon.  By the time we arrived at the hospital he was already much better.  To ensure it was safe to travel they ran many tests.  We missed the ship sailing.  

 

The port agent arranged a room for us at a hotel near the hospital.  Later that evening dad was discharged and we spent the night at the hotel.  The next morning the agent helped us arrange transportation to the next port, which was thankfully only a few hour car ride.  He notified the ship and security met us and we were allowed to re-board.  We needed to show that the Dr. medically cleared him to continue the trip.  I was greatly impressed with how RCCL and the port agent handled the situation and gave assistance, not so impressed with the Ships medical staff.

 

I have dealt with the port agent in Halifax, when my Mother had a medical issue.

 

He was SUPER.   He called me a cab (my Dad went in the ambulance), then when the cab did not show up, drove me to the hospital.  And went in with me until I met up with my Dad.  He offered to make hotel reservations (I had already done this with an app), and offered to wait to drive us to the hotel.

 

AMAZING service.  And a very nice guy.

[lcat02143]

56 minutes ago, SRF said:

 

I have dealt with the port agent in Halifax, when my Mother had a medical issue.

 

He was SUPER.   He called me a cab (my Dad went in the ambulance), then when the cab did not show up, drove me to the hospital.  And went in with me until I met up with my Dad.  He offered to make hotel reservations (I had already done this with an app), and offered to wait to drive us to the hotel.

 

AMAZING service.  And a very nice guy.

Yes,  he made a very difficult day very easy.  

[travelplus]

Let's be kind to the Port Agents!