We are finally home...thanks for the prayers

[cosmo cruiser]

I'm so glad that your husband is stable and in rehab. Your story is truly amazing and thank you for sharing. Prayers for his complete recovery. One question I have is if the med evac flight was paid for by your carnival insurance or you had separate insurance for that flight.

 

 

The cost of being flown from Freeport, Bahamas to Ft Lauderdale was almost 12K and was totally covered by the cruise insurance we bought thru Carnival. We had up to 30K to use just for transportation alone. Our flight home was also covered under the plan. Kenny & the nurse flew first class and I had to pay up front for my flight (economy class) and it will be refunded to us on our claim once we get it filed. If he had not needed a nurse we would have both been flown home first class with me as his travel escort (non medical). We will also get back the cost of our original flights to Florida.

[winddawn]

Thank you for sharing the update with your cruise family here on CC, cosmo cruiser. I am so happy to hear that things are looking up. You both have certainly been through a lot. It is reassuring to hear that Carnival team members took such good care of your DH.

 

Keep us posted on how he's progressing. Know that everyone here is sending warm thoughts your way. I'm also looking forward to hearing about your next Carnival cruise adventure when the right time comes.

 

Best wishes for continued improvement in his strength and for a speedy recovery.

[pghsteelerfan]

I couldn't imagine what you or your DH have been through and am so glad you are both home now and that your DH is on the road to recovery. I'll keep you in my prayers that his recovery moves forward with no setbacks and eventually a full recovery so you can retake a cruise on Splendor soon and many more after that.

[mz Miami]

Please check your email I sent you the video from two different emails addresses because the video was too big .

[sjn911]

So touched ...modern medicine, insurance and caring hearts doing their very best,,,Thanks be to God..

 

Thanks so for update and prayers in recovery and really enjoying that next cruise.

[planetcadillac]

That is great to hear. It seems like Carnival's insurance is a good deal. I had always looked at alternatives. I do have one related side question, what did Carnival do with your belongings ? Since it took a while to get back to home I wonder what they would do with it. I have usually always purchased insurance for medical, and I know Carnival offers it when you book. With that said, during our travels with Cunard, given the often older clientele on the longer voyages it is almost de rigeur and openly discussed. If you take anything longer than a week or a far destination they practically yell at you if you don't have insurance.

[cweather]

So glad your husband is home safe were he should be. I know a little about what your going thru as my husband had a heart attack and triple bypass a couple days before your husband, only we were not on a ship. We too had to cancel an up coming cruise however I only had push mine out a couple of months. We have never purchased cruise insurance before but because of your story and what my husband went thru I will surely be purchasing it before we leave. I am so glad everything is trying out well for you and your husband, I will add you guys in my prayers.

[Donh44]

Thank you to each of you for the kind words and all the prayers. We are finally back home and thankfully my husband is making progress toward recovery from a very rough experience. We are very blessed. We got back on Feb 18th and my husband was finally back home on Feb 25th.

 

We sailed on Carnival Splendor out of Miami on 1/11/15. Kenny had a heart attack right after sitting down to dinner the very first night. We had ordered and introduced ourselves to our wait staff when he started to feel ill. We ended up going by wheelchair (one of the waiters RAN while pushing him in a wheelchair) to the infirmary where he received amazing care in a matter of minutes. The medical staff was professional and totally knew what they were doing. We were both very impressed. It was determined in short order that he needed to be evacuated and fast. We were heading to two days at sea before our first port so he wouldn't be able to get the care he was going to need on board. We were medi vac off the ship around midnight onto a smaller boat for a long, rough, and windy ride to Freeport. Carnival diverted the ship as close to Freeport as possible even though we were not scheduled to stop in the Bahamas. Once there we were taken to a local hospital so he could be stabilized. We were there for 12 hours and then we were medi vac by air ambulance to Ft Lauderdale to the Broward Heart Hospital which is a level 1 trama center.

While the stay in Freeport was brief and the staff was wonderful you do not want to be in the hospital there. Very old equipment and out dated technology to say the least. Thankfully we were able to get to Ft Lauderdale quickly. IF he had only had a heart attaqck we would have been home in less than a week. They did a heart catheraztion and put in 2 stinks and his heart was up and running fine.

 

Unfortunetly he aspirated on the medical flight (threw up into his own lungs) while he was strapped down upon take off and things went down hill fast. He developed aspiration pnemonia which is pretty serious by itself. When they treated the pnemonia it killed all of the good bacteria in his body and he developed C-Diff which is a serious infection in his gut. Over the course of the next two weeks his kidneys shut down, his bowels stopped working, and his colon stopped processing. He had respiratory failure and was on 100% breathing machine. His became septic and went into septic shock. He was on 24 hour a day kidney dialisis for 4 days and then had an additional three days of 4 hour a day dialisis. He was sedated for a total of 19 days and was delerious for a week after that. He had two main lines put in, was tubed twice and had to have a trach put in on day 18.

 

When it was all said and done he spent 33 days in CVICU and an additional 6 days in a regular room. We had to have a medical transport home to Indiana (an RN went on a commerical flight with us) and he was on oxygen for the flight home. Once home he had to go to a rehab center to regain his balance enough to be home alone so I could go back to work. Last Thursday he was readmitted to our local hospital because he was feeling horrible after only a week or so home. He ended up being dehydrated and having a urinary tract infection as well as a stomach virus. He is home again as of yesterday and the virus will run it's course. He is on meds for the infection and hopefully he will start physical, occupational and cardiac rehab again next week.

We are praying he will make a full recovery in time. He lost so much muscle mass being sedated and in bed for 33 days that it is going to take time. He has a good attitude and wants to get better and get back to work so that is a huge part of the recovery process.

I feel very blessed that we received the amazing care in the infirmary, in Freeport as well as at Broward Hospital. I am afraid if we had been sent to a different hospital or had any other team of doctors he very well may not have made it thru it all. The team of doctors he had in Ft Lauderdale were nothing short of miracle workers with everything he was dealing with at once. They truly saved his life.

 

I had often wondered what kind of medical care you would get on a ship if you ever needed it? I now know they can do what needs to be done and they are amazing. We hope to sail the Splendor again (as of now we are booked to sail her to Canada/New England in September) and hope to have a chance to say thank you in person.

 

We were supposed to be on the Glory this week for a cruise but we had to cancel that one as he isn't strong enough yet to be on a cruise and I am out of vacation time due to being gone for almost 6 weeks while all of this was going on. We will sail again and it will be on Carnival. We will be lifetime supporters and customers after the way they took care of us in our most desperate time of need.

 

We always have sailed with travel insurance and like most people have considered not buying it a time or two just because we never used it in 25 previous cruises. All I can say is I am so thankfull we had it. The air flight from the Bahamas alone was almost 12K and every penny was covered by the insurance. I don't even know yet what all of the other things cost but quite a lot of it will be covered once I am able to get the claim sumitted. I was pleasently surprised to learn that the cruise insurance also will cover up to 10K of non covered medical costs after our regular insurance pays. We may have enough to cover most of our deductables and out of pocket costs. What a blessing it is that we spent that $90 per person just to be on the safe side!

 

Sorry this is so long but quite a few people asked how he was doing and what actually happened so I wanted to fill you all in. Thank you all again for the prayers, we felt them all the way to Florida. Safe travels :)

__________________

 

So glad that everything worked out and that he is home and on the mend. What an ordeal and thank you for sharing that. It had to be a harrowing experience.

 

I am going to be on the Splendor on Sept 6 to New England/Canada. Hope to get to meet you and see that you are enjoying a well deserved cruise. Check out the Roll Call for 9/6/15 - Splendor and join us on there.

[sjn911]

So glad that everything worked out and that he is home and on the mend. What an ordeal and thank you for sharing that. It had to be a harrowing experience.

 

I am going to be on the Splendor on Sept 6 to New England/Canada. Hope to get to meet you and see that you are enjoying a well deserved cruise. Check out the Roll Call for 9/6/15 - Splendor and join us on there.

 

That is so nice Donh44,,,we were really a family on this one...; Cosmo..it means so much when folks get back and can get well with big experiences..so happy for you.

[pauleydm]

What a journey the two of you have been on. Thank you for sharing your story and may your husband have a speedy recovery.

[cosmo cruiser]

Please check your email I sent you the video from two different emails addresses because the video was too big .

 

I have the video, not something I ever thought we would see. Looking forward to sharing it with our kids (now that their dad is going to be ok:))

Thanks again for taking the time to reach out to us to share this. Very much appreciated.

[cosmo cruiser]

That is great to hear. It seems like arnival's insurance is a good deal. I had always looked at alternatives. I do have one related side question, what did Carnival do with your belongings ? Since it took a while to get back to home I wonder what they would do with it. I have usually always purchased insurance formedical, and I know Carnival offers it when you book. With that said, during our travels with Cunard, given the often older clientele on the longer voyages it is almost de rigeur and openly discussed. If you take anything longer han a week or a far destination they practically yell at you if you don't have insurance.

 

While I was in the infirmary answering questions and trying to do what I could for Kenny, the head of security came to the infirmary and asked for permission to enter our cabin and pack up our belongings. Well of course that was the least of my worries at the time and I hadn't even considered needing that to happen. He took three crew members and in a matter of very short time all of our belongs had been packed up and were waiting outside the infirmary to be loaded on the transport boat. Once in the Bahamas, when we were getting ready to board the medical airplane I was told I had 15 minutes to pack, I could take a purse and a small bag and there would not be room on the plane for anything else. I called the Carnival contact number and they sent a Carnival rep to the hopsital to pick up our bags and arrange shipment back to Indiana for us. I had them send the bags on my companies UPS account and I paid back my company for the charges. I am now in the process of filing a claim for all of the expenses related to this thru the travel insurance and the charges can be claimed for refund. I am sure if a person didn't have a company UPS account to use Carnival would have shipped them against a credit card or billed a person if need be. They totally took care of anything we needed. Our luggage arrived in Indiana about a week after we shipped it, way before we arrived :) but eventully we got there as well!

[cosmo cruiser]

That is so nice Donh44,,,we were really a family on this one...; Cosmo..it means so much when folks get back and can get well with big experiences..so happy for you.

 

We would love to meet you on the Splendor in September! The plan at this time is to be on the Splendor as long as Kenny does well and is strong enough to do so. I believe with all my heart he will be recovered and back to work well before September! We will keep in touch so we can plan to meet & share a drink on the Splendor when the time comes. I will join the roll call so we can make contact with each other.

I truly felt like I did have a family of CC members with us thru out this "adventure". Not an adventure I would ever want to go on again but the support has been amazing.

 

SJN911- Thanks for all the prayers and good wishes. Nice to have you in my CC family!

[beshears]

Yes, I'm so glad things are getting better for you. As has been said, a person never knows when something bad is going to happen, and your going to NEED insurance. In my 26 years of cruising, if I am doing a flight and cruise, I always take it out. At least 4 times, I was glad that we had it. One time I was not able to cruise, wound up in the hospital before the cruise, and had to go through a lot of RED tape to get my money refunded, but it did come through. The only thing they did not pay for was the taxes and port fees for the cruise. Yes, when your stranded and have no clue what your next step is going to be, and how your going to pay for it, insurance does come in handy. I'm so glad the people on the Spendor took good care of you. It is less than a month when we will be checking it out too for the first time.:)