Cruises - Sick passenger kicked off ship by Carnival

Carnival Cruise Lines to sick passenger: Get off our ship (http://www.usatoday.com/travel/cruises/item.aspx?type=blog&ak=46611194.blog)

According to this Blog and this Tampa Tribune article (http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/mar/05/na-man-put-ashore-during-cruise-celebrating-his-89/),

"89-year-old Jack Clevenger was celebrating his birthday with his family on the Carnival Legend when he experienced some strange symptoms including blood in his mouth and in his stool. He visited the ship's doctor, who concluded he had internal bleeding and told him he needed to seek medical attention off the ship. The paper says the line then asked him to leave at the next port, which was Roatan (Honduras.)
...

A Carnival spokeswoman told the paper the vessel was about to embark on a two-day sea crossing where it would have been tough to evacuate Clevenger if his condition worsened. Putting him off the ship was the most prudent course.

The Tribune says it took Clevenger and his son two days, three flights and $2,500 to get home to Florida, where Clevenger checked into a hospital. The paper says Clevenger did not have travel insurance, which would have covered some or all of the cost of getting him from the ship to the nearest hospital (or, in some cases, all the way home)."

I have heard of this happening before, and I can understand the ship's and cruise line's position - but it has to be hard to be dumped in Roatán, one of those places with marginal medical facilities where the expat's creed is best explained by the phrase "When in pain, take the plane!"

Fortunately, Lady JDiver and I carry relatively inexpensive medevac insurance provided through the nonprofit Divers Alert Networ (http://www.diversalertnetwork.org/)k - membership (not limited to divers, nor is it age-restricted) provides up to $100,000 per covered person DAN TravelAssist medical evacuation insurance, as long as you are 50 miles away from home, year 'round. (You merely have to contact DAN TravelAssist and make the arrangements - the service is provided by AIG TravelAssist, and I had a friend medevacced from Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, Mexico to Sacramento, CA for treatment of a severe infection.)

(Caveat: I am a longtime member, and cruiser - so I will not leave home without it, so to speak.)

1) Always always ALWAYS have travel insurance when traveling outside the country. It's cheap, and can be a lifesaver (literally!). A good travel insurance policy probably could have gotten them on a chartered jet home the same day.

2) I can empathize with both the passenger and the cruise line. I don't know who is right and who is wrong here.

It is tough on the old man, but I think Carnival did the right thing.

If Carnival had allowed him to stay on board and his condition worsened and died enroute to the next port of call, his family would surely have filed suit against Carnival. Still, Carnival's handling could have been better, they should have at least paid for him to be delivered to the next major city with adequate medical facilities.

For an 89 year old man to travel with no medical insurance or travel insurance is borderline idiotic in my opinion.

An 89 year old man traveling without travel insurance. Why should Carnival assume his health care? Carnival did absolutely the right thing.

Not sure what the situation is in the US - BUT in Australia - it is hard to get insurance for the over 70's.

If the insurance is available its often very expensive, and many seniors make the decision its too expenvie.

while i agree that no one should travel without it - sometimes its not available or affordable.

adam

sometimes its not available or affordable.

adam

Which means that the old guy can dump the problem on Carnival? Sheesh, have some common sense. You're 89 years old, you don't have insurance. What are you doing on a cruise ship?

That is why some cruise lines and travel companies have an upper age limit. Sometimes wisdom is not letting a passenger on the boat!

We have a yearly plan of travel insurance. Wouldn't travel without it.

All ships have the legal paperwork all lined up to make sure that their own doctors can make the decision about putting people off the boat. If you fall and break a leg on the ship, you can bet you will be off at the next port unless it is one of the 'private' island stops.

Just ask yourself when you plan a cruise, if I need blood where will it come from? The boat has none.

An 89 year old man traveling without travel insurance. Why should Carnival assume his health care? Carnival did absolutely the right thing.

I completely agree. I fail to understand how the passenger has any complaint here. He was 89 years old and developed blood in his mouth and stool. Clearly he needed immediate medical attention, at a local hospital. A cruise ship is not a hospital. They do not have a blood bank, in case he needs a transfusion. As PCheng points out, if he died on the two day sea crossing, you bet his family would then be suing Carnival and the doctor for malpractice. If elderly passengers decide to roll the dice and travel without travel insurance, they must accept the risks. For him to now state "They treated us with utter disregard for our safety", is just unbelievable.

Roatan (RTB) to Miami (MIA) is 4 hours 30 mins. Departure is early morning, so he might have had to spend a night on the island if they dropped him off during the day. Price of a single ticket today is $900.

I guess you could call this a "two day trip" but in reality it's an overnight stay on the island and three short flights (30 mins + 40 mins + 2 hrs 15 mins). During this trip, the guy would never be more than one hour away from an airport with some possibility of getting to a hospital on dry land.

How does that compare with a ship that's going to be in the middle of the ocean for two days?

I applaud the ship's medical staff for their decision.

Is it fair that insurance policies for seniors are so expensive? I don't know.

But even if the insurance industry isn't being fair... Is it the responsibility of the cruise operator to compensate the elderly passenger for the insurance industry's failure to offer him a reasonable insurance policy? I don't think so.

Any passenger should realize that if he cannot or will not take out an insurance policy, he has to act as his own insurance.

At least this may alert Carnival to require proof of travel insurance to the over 70's (or whichever age range they have).

Had he paid by credit card, wouldn't that have covered him for such cases? I know my Mastercard from Gulf Bank does exactly that.