Disney ship now arriving in Port Everglades

ship just arriving into port. Not on list of ships scheduled to arrive today or tomorrow. Ship is beautiful.

Disney Fantasy .. unscheduled stop, medical emergency maybe.

Disney Fantasy moving away from dock 9:56 PM

Disney Fantasy moving away from dock 9:56 PM

Yep. You must live here too!

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They have to book it back to the Bahamas by 8:30am tomorrow! And then back to Port Canaveral on the Saturday! Whew!

The have to book it back to the Bahamas by 8:30am tomorrow! And then back to Port Canaveral on the Saturday! Whew!

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That was quick wasn't it!

Probably a medical disembarkation.

The Fantasy is going to Nassau? That's odd.

MarineTraffic.com has the Fantasy's destination as Castaway Cay as the next stop.

MarineTraffic.com has the Fantasy's destination as Castaway Cay as the next stop.

I saw her too. Seems odd to detour for a one person emergency. Why not a helicopter?

Does anyone know where she was coming from? What was her itinerary?

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I saw her too. Seems odd to detour for a one person emergency. Why not a helicopter?

 

Does anyone know where she was coming from? What was her itinerary?

 

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Not at all odd. It may be a helicopter wasn't available. Or using a helicopter wasn't the best way to go, depending on medical issue.

We've been on ships that diverted for one person having a medical emergency. The captain decides the quickest/safest route for getting the person to help.

Exactly as above--the captain and the doctor will consult and ultimately the captain will determine the most logical method for the evacuation based on time and safety considerations.

The Fantasy was on a sea day traveling from Cozumel (itinerary switched around due to Alberto) to Castaway Cay. We were informed at noon we would be making a stop in Port Everglades due to a medical emergency around 8:30 that evening. Made it to Castaway Cay the next morning on time.

Thanks for confirming out best guesses.

Exactly as above--the captain and the doctor will consult and ultimately the captain will determine the most logical method for the evacuation based on time and safety considerations.

Actually, there is a third party in these discussions, the USCG flight surgeon. The Captain will decide if the risk to the ship/crew/passengers warrants a helicopter evacuation, the ship's doctor and the flight surgeon will determine whether the risk to the patient warrants a helicopter, and the flight surgeon will also discuss with the flight crew to determine if the risk to the flight crew warrants it.

Many instances, if the patient is stable in the ship's medical center, the risk of a winch evacuation and the flight time with limited medical resources, is not considered to be in the patient's best interest, so they will keep the patient onboard with medical care until transfer directly to the hospital is available.

Actually, there is a third party in these discussions, the USCG flight surgeon. The Captain will decide if the risk to the ship/crew/passengers warrants a helicopter evacuation, the ship's doctor and the flight surgeon will determine whether the risk to the patient warrants a helicopter, and the flight surgeon will also discuss with the flight crew to determine if the risk to the flight crew warrants it.

 

Many instances, if the patient is stable in the ship's medical center, the risk of a winch evacuation and the flight time with limited medical resources, is not considered to be in the patient's best interest, so they will keep the patient onboard with medical care until transfer directly to the hospital is available.

If you want to get technical, the receiving doc is also in the discussion mix. That's been my role more than a few times. Of course the ultimate answer is that I couldn't be responsible till they got the patient to me, but it is much cleaner and easier if they have an accepting doc rather than just taking the patient into the ER with no plan for continued care. And if they have identified an accepting physician, it only makes sense that said person is involved in the transport decisions.

Bottom line--accepting physician can arrange a "direct admit" rather than a stop in the ER, saving time and money, but to do so means that the doc will be there when the patient arrives and will likely have arranged for necessary support services to be there as well. It is all a matter of what is best for the patient and what is available at the accepting institution.

We have had several medical evacuations at sea. The first I recall was on the Transatlantic in May of 2015. The patient had a seriously broken bone. They evacuated by helicopter offshore from Charleston, South Carolina. The next time I recall a medical evacuation was that same year on the Panama Canal cruise. In that case, the ship briefly pulled up to the dock in Costa Rica. We were in and out in 10 minutes time. We done a lot of cruising and have seen other medical evacuations. I share these stories as they are practical experiences that support what the experts in prior post have noted.

As in many other areas, I've been more impressed with the way medical emergencies are handled on DCL than on any other line we've cruised. I've personally witnessed a couple of emergency situations which were handled very professionally. Most impressive was an incident in the main lobby while we were in Lumiere's at lunch. In addition to the medical personnel, a code was issued which resulted in several dozen servers, housekeeping personnel, etc. who lined up forming a "human fence" around the area where the medical personnel were working, effectively providing privacy to the patient and staff. If you hadn't seen the initial incident, you might have mistaken this for some sort of inspection or teaching event; you would not have known that a medical event was underway! In a typical "Disney" way, they protected the patient's privacy and at the same time preserved the illusion that "bad things don't happen at Disney."

The other two that I've witnessed involved obvious "load them up and take them to medical" injuries rather than a patient needed to be treated and stabilized first. And that's exactly what happened.

I agree with Moki'smommy on the medical team at DCL. DCL contracts the medical service to Vanter Health Services (or something close to that). My information may be dated, but DCL and Crystal Cruise Line are the two cruise lines that are contracted to Vanter, and it is considered a premium service. Vanter has a US subsidiary but is actually a South African owned enterprise.

On the Fantasy in January of 2015, my wife had an occurrence of tachycardia (rapid heart beat). They treated it by putting an IV into her arm and injecting a drug designed to immediately address the rapid heart beat. It was a bit scary to us as lay people, trusting doctors not educated in the US, but it was effective. When we returned shoreside and went to the cardiologist, he indicated they did exactly the right thing (and she now carries a drug that she can take if this reoccurs). They were very concerned and compassionate, as were numerous DCL crew who were very concerned for us. I have seen one of the South African doctors on the ship with his wife, and I always thank them for the medical service that day.

Not everyone feels this way. There were some very negative posts about Vanter that same year we had our positive experience. I can only share from what we experienced. And, our insurance did cover the services retrospectively as an out-of-network costs.

Vanter maintains a US billing office, so some insurance companies consider their services to have been rendered within the US. That's great if it helps to get things covered under medical insurance...but we always have travel insurance "just in case." Since my insurance has a clause that says any care outside the US is not covered, it isn't worth taking the chance on how they'd rule if something happened on board or if we needed care in another country (we often do European cruises, etc.)

The doc we saw on daughter's trip to the med center was French. Yes, you have to get used to a little different terminology and sometimes ways of doing things, but we found all the personnel to be very thorough as well as kind.