Medical emergency disembarkation from a cruise ship?
 

I have always wondered how the "system" works when one needs to be disembarked from a cruise ship for emergency treatment or evacuation back home.

We have been on cruises when a passenger has had to be disembarked, but have no idea how subsequent events are coordinated (by whom?).

Over the years we average a couple of cruises per year. We always get the vacation interruption insurance which we have had to use for medical cancellation prior to a cruise. And now that we are old(er) need to know more.

Have you had such an experience? Willing to share with us?

We never had to leave the ship but I pulled out all my papers on it when it happened.

The first time we took the insurance, it paid for itself... My wife had a medical incident while the ship was out to sea, enroute to the first destination on the cruise. Basically, her blood sugar had bottomed out and she almost collapsed. The medics were called, they gave her some glucose but she was still a little thready, so they took her to the ships ER. They ran an EKG and didn't like what they say so they kept her overnight. The next day things were back in the normal range, and while she was a little weak they discharged her. The night she was in the ER I pulled all the paperwork and saw that they had a phone number to call for assistance. I never had to call it but I would expect that they would have made arrangements. What did happen is that I had a $10k medical bill I had to put on my CC and then submit both to my Medical Insurance and then the Travel Insurnace we took out. We had had to out of pocket the initial amount but between our medical insurance and the travel insurance, it cost us nothing but time and inconvenience... I always take the insurance now....

I have one experience as a witness and passenger on a ship with a medical emergency.

We were returning from Bermuda, during a storm. A passenger had a heart attack or stroke or something similarly horrible. They called the coast guard. Coast guard came with a medicopter, but the ship didn't have a helipad, it was too small for one. So they sent a cage in a cable down to the top deck, the guy was strapped to it, and cabled up into the copter. During a storm. The cage was twisting around and around, and it was horrifying to watch. I think if I had been the patient, I would've had a heart attack and died from the trauma while still in the cage.

The wife remained on board and met her husband in the hospital after the ship got to port.

Definitely an irrational fear for many....but something all should think about when booking. Sadly, some have passed while cruising as well

Do they just dump you over the side like they did OBL?

There are morgues on large cruise ships.

What insurance did you use?

As a Pre Need Counselor and client of Baldwin Brothers Funeral and Cremation, I can tell you what happens if someone passes away while traveling (anywhere in the world) if they have Baldwin Brothers Travel and Relocation Protection Plan. Depending on what you purchase when setting up Preneed Arrangements, Baldwin Brothers will either fly the mortal remains back to Florida (to their facility) or make the arrangements to have the cremation performed closest to where the person passes. It’s the ultimate peace of mind, knowing my loved will not be burdened with the task or financial stress should I die while traveling or cruising or if I chose to move back to be near family in the future. Very affordable, one time purchase for peace of mind.

I have been on ships where they had to take passengers off by helicopter, pulled into a port to disembark sick passengers and as a travel agent for almost 30 years, I always recommend taking out travel insurance

It depends
 

It depends on what law applies. Board in a U.S. port, and you will be treated under U.S. Law. Board elsewhere, and the Country of Origin or maybe the Country of registry for the ship would apply. Finally, make sure you read the fine print on the passenger ticket.

On your own
 

My husband had a medical emergency that could not be resolved on board

He was strapped onto a horizontal caged stretcher and pulled up to a helicopter. I had to hold onto a responder who was pulled on to the helicopter

We were dropped off in Puerto Rico and took the ambulance to the hospital. We were totally on our own to find food, get care, get to the airport and fly back to the US.

Sitting in the hallway of the emergency room and trying to find someone who spoke English and trying to get care was not for the faint of heart. Hospital care and staff and protocols certainly not what we encounter in the US

Insurance covered costs

While we did not buy travel insurance when we were younger, we do now. Given what happened when Vantage Travel declared bankruptcy, I now purchase travel insurance through a third party such as Allianz. If you purchase the insurance through your travel company/cruise line, you may not like the result coming out of the bankruptcy court. In the case of Vantage Travel, another company agreed to give credit through their company but you could only offset the cost of the cruise by up to 50%. Since Vantage Travel did the insurance themselves, the insurance had no value in the end,

I had the misfortune to be emergency disembarked. Slipped on wet deck and dislocated and cracked my femur.

Thank God we were still docked in Key West. The next stop would have been Mexico.

The ship had KW EMS pick us up at the ship. The crew packed our cabin (missed several things but fortunately we had friends staying on board to get the rest) and left it with the Port Agent.

EMS took me to Lower Keys Medical Center. A much better facility than I was expecting. They took great care of me.
The port agent called my wife and asked which hotel he should take the luggage to. He arranged for a room at the now Opal resort right at Mallory Square.
Our travel (and our health) insurance paid for everything. Including Uber’s and meals for my wife.
The travel assist on our health insurance arranged for a car service and nurse to get us to the Airport a few days after surgery. They arranged for flights home (in first class) and for a car to pick us up and take us home.

We will never travel without travel insurance.

"If you get sick or hurt on a cruise, the urgency of your condition will determine whether you are treated aboard, taken ashore at the next scheduled port, (more urgently) taken ashore at the nearest port, or require an at-sea medical evacuation." (Medjet).

It is my understanding that all cruise lines have wording in the cruise contract similar to what is above. They'll get you from the ship to medical services on land if you develop a condition that the ship's medical services cannot handle. They're not quite so clear on what happens AFTER such a disembarkation but from folks I've talked to, once you're at the land facility, you're on your own, and the services you get will depend on your ability to pay for them. Our insurance covers us internationally: if we need services, we pay but once home our insurance reimburses us for whatever we had to pay for at the prevailing rate for such services where we live, or the cost of such services incurred, whichever is less.

On one cruise we had a guy die at a cruise port (Labadee, Haiti), while on the beach. The resort, which is leased by the cruise company, is pretty close to the dock and we saw ship's personnel running to help the guy. They had a large screen-like thing that they used to encircle the guy and the personnel working to help him. They kept the screen in place when they carried him back to the ship as well. Talking to a crewmember afterward, we found out that there are terminally ill people who actually plan to die on a cruise ship, so while not exactly common, it is expected from time to time and they do have specific procedures in place for when it does.

Well never had an incident on a cruise, I did have a problem at a resort in the DR. 2 hours ride in a fake ambulance to the nearest hospital (a poor clinic here in the USA) and $3000 to leave said clinic later. If you have medical problems, be concerned about where in relation to your resort good medical care is. If this had been a heart attack or something more serious than a broken foot I am sure my daughter would have died. Also if your younger family is traveling in one of these places, be aware that the payment is required on the spot. No waiting for insurance authorization or travel insurance. Make sure they have a credit card with substantial charging power. If you have an extended stay I imagine things can be arranged. But for a broken foot they would not let us leave the hospital without paying.

My wife and I were traveling out of the country not on a cruise ship. However the circumstances are handled similarly. When we booked our air fare we were able to buy travel insurance through AIG. Best investment ever. My wife got sick and ended up in a foreign hospital for 4 days. We had $10k in medical coverage for whatever wasn’t covered by our health insurance, plus it covered all my meals and hotels while I waited for her to be able to travel. Once she could travel it paid for us to get back to the US. Keep in mind Medicare will not cover you out of the country. Your supplemental healthcare coverage is what you will use. ( make sure yours does) I had to pay out of pocket and fill out a LOT of forms to get reimbursed by the insurance company . It took many months to get it resolved but we got every dime back. Get travel insurance and make sure that it will also cover to transport someone if deceased. That’s really expensive!

Not cruise ship. We disembarked in Portugal after cruise. Public health system used. Took about 6 hours back and forth in overworked but efficient ER. Four prescriptions filled. No insurance used. Thirty dollars total for the four scripts. Good recovery, the doctor didnt speak English but plenty of staff did.

We use UHC safe trip insurance when we travel. We use the cruise line insurance for trip cancellation etc, then we get the medical portion through UHC. They are very reasonable & they have many options to choose from. Medical ait evacuation from a ship can run you 50,000 in some cases.

medical emergency
 

I had a medical emergency on the first day out on a Carnival cruise from Tampa. They called the Coast Guard, and the Coast Guard sent a helicopter to pick me up and take me back to Tampa General hospital. It didn't cost me anything. I found out that it is a public service they provide.

Our cruise this February we were travelling on Royal Caribbean. I used my USA Passport Card for my ID and online check-in and at the ship.

The agent checking my papers told me that I needed to be careful because if you use a US Passport Card (not the "regular" booklet) that if I needed to leave the cruise due to medical difficulties that the passport card would cause an issue and that in the future I should use my regular passport for Caribbean Cruises.

She said there could be an issue with payment for medical services if I use my Passport Card to book cruise.

I have not heard of this before--just passing along caution from RCCL.

You might want to consider an annual travel insurance policy with a substantial emergency medical and medical evacuation policy limit. Ours is with Allianz. If you travel a few times per year it is more cost effective then buying Insurance for each trip.

very expensive to be lifted by helicopter from a cruise ship....and that's on you, out of pocket

That is what we use.

Irrational fear? I’ve been on multiple cruises where someone has been taken off for a medical emergency, and there’s been many times where someone has died on a cruise ship.

We had to use our travel insurance a few years ago when I fell getting off a train in Dover, England, on the way to board a cruise ship for a Baltic cruise. We waited an hour for an ambulance to deliver us to an emergency room in Ashford, where X-rays showed a fractured femur. I was readily admitted after the hospital verified coverage with the insurance company. I had purchased "primary" travel insurance, rather than "secondary". My understanding is that primary insurance pays without having to wait for a Medicare supplement policy to act.

I underwent surgery the next day, and then spent eight more days in the hospital recuperating. My husband found a bed and breakfast nearby. When it was time to make arrangements to go home, On Call International, the transport part of the policy, took over. They flew a registered nurse from Florida to the hospital, where she picked us up and escorted us on to British Airways for the flight to Orlando. The nurse was a wonderfully skilled "rescue" nurse who had been in the military. She got us home to The Villages and made sure we had the proper instructions and equipment before leaving.

The hospital bill came to $11,000 (I know, low by American pricing) and it took around two months to be reimbursed. I was in close contact with someone in the hospital's billing system who patiently waited for our policy to pay before demanding payment. So, when insurance settled, I paid the hospital with a credit card, and their rep was grateful that they got reimbursed fully. And we were so grateful to have the travel insurance.

Wife got sick halfway through a Viking river cruise. Since they have no doctor on board they radioed ahead to the closest hospital and arranged where the ship could dock and have an ambulance waiting. Long story short, 7 days in Rotterdam hospital who made direct contact with my travel insurance company. I never saw a hospital bill. They then purchased a ticket to fly us back to the US upon her release. The travel company was Allianz. A very large company - DON'T BUY FROM THEM!! I fought for over 6 months to get the trip interuption, excursions, etc. reimbursed.

This scenario is what I would expect/fear. Especially if I were the patient and my shy/timid/gullible/trusts everybody wife being confronted with all the unknowns (threats).

One would like to think there is some connectivity/follow through to assure the disabled get to where they are supposed to be....then home!

Always Make Sure Your Travel Insurance is a Primary Payer
 

I also use a third party company and make sure they are primary vs secondary payer and that pre existing medical issues are covered. I've found that most travel insurance is secondary, unless you purchase the most expensive option. I have one company I pretty much use all the time (Chubb). I buy their medium option. I just completed a 27 day cruise and the travel insurance was $800 for the two of us. The total price of the cruise with airfare was over $11K. A large part of the premium is to cover their cost of having to pay for the cruise if we had to cancel for medical or other covered reasons. When I have a cheap cruise, I often just buy the medical insurance option. It's not usually worth it to pay the extra to cover the canceled cruise price. Medical insurance is very inexpensive by itself. On an 8 day cruise, it was about $45 for me and $25 for the wife.

Cruise Insurance
 

We buy GeoBlue when we travel outside of the country. You can get a 1 trip policy or multi trip policy.

My neighbor died while on a cruise . They were off the coast of Ireland. Her body was taken to a morgue where an autopsy was performed.
Her bereaved husband checked into a motel and made arrangements to have her body returned to the states. The authorities made him stay in the country for two weeks, until all of the results of the autopsy were in. At that time he flew home, with her body.
It seems it’s not uncommon for disgruntled husbands to “off” their spouse on a cruise ship.
So some countries won’t release the body or the spouse, until all questions are answered.
When you get past the emotional shock of such a tragedy, I’m sure there were big financial repercussions as well

Wow....that story took a weird twist.
CSI NCL

A travel insurance policy will cover that. We have friends, where the wife fell and broker her wrist in the Galapagos Islands. They had to re-route the ship, and fly her out on a helicopter.

The insurance paid for all of it (and yes, it was very expensive...)

Puerto Rico is the USA...Maybe you mean the mainland US.....

I would have thought that the ships doctor would have been able to set the wrist but guess not.

One would think that... But reality had a different plan...

Fortunately no experience.
I would say make sure you take your passport so you can fly home.
The ship will probably pack up your belongs and store them at the port you were to land at so I would email the cruise line and ask.
If time permits you could pack up and leave the ship with the idea of flying home.

Has anyone used the travel insurance that comes with some credit cards?

Thanks for all the info shared on this subject.

The whole process just has to be super frustrating, stressful and scary.

Once it has been decided to disembark the patient (where ever)..... where is the connectivity that assures the next steps to be taken/coordinated to get to the appropriate care location and ultimately to the point of cruise origination. I have this not so hidden fear, as stated in one of the posts of once leaving the ship you are pretty much on your own.
Then there is the side of me that wants to believe there is no way the cruise industry would allow the ship just to dump and wave goodbye.

There has to be a line of coordination/connectivity...some where.....right? If not one can imagine the vultures and predators lining up to get their share of the missFORTUNE.

A good friend of mine was on a cruise ship returning to San Francisco from Hawaii. She had an emergency onboard as she had congestive heart failure. The ship took a detour to Mexico, it docked at a port and the ship was met by an ambulance. She was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment and the next day an ambulance took her across the border to a hospital in San Diego where she remained until well enough to travel to her home in Northern California. There was a hefty bill but after she called and wrote to her insurance company they picked up most of it.

Yes. There were requests for additional documentation but they did eventually pay up.