Just got home from a wild trip that started with a cruise from Galveston. Not feeling real well at departure but were sailing with 22 other friends and family so went anyway. Never one to get sea sick but still holding everything together. First port day was Key West (day 3), as we were trying to get off the ship in the mad house with 3000 others I got very overheated. I gave up and went back to the cabin. My wife stayed with me for a couple hours and I chilled and napped before I begged her to join family ashore. Later that night every thing seemed alright until after dinner when the sickness started. For the next 24 hours could keep nothing down.
Down to see the ships doctor with cold sweats where they start an IV of fluids. They decide to keep me overnight and disembark me for medical care on Thursday Morning in Nassau. Said I would need a doctors release to rejoin ship or to fly home. By this time I am feeling much better having rehydrated with 3 bags of fluids. So off the wife and I go by ambalance from the ship. They ask where do I want to go to the private hospital noting it was very expensive and I did not buy travel insurance. So off we go to the public hospital.
We arrive at 8 am to find gurney's full of people every where. The ambalance driver finds me an empty gurney, wipes it down for me and puts a new paper sheet on it. Then wheels be back into a corner while the other takes my wife to sign me in. Of course I am still holding my IV bag and cathather foley bag in my lap. After about 30 minutes someones comes around to check my vitals which were normal. I tell her I just need to see the doctor and get a release to rejoin the ship before it sails at 6pm.
You would have to see this place, most ER rooms have private exam cubes but this one had removed all equipment from each exam cube. Every cube had 3 gurneys and all open areas were stacked 3x3. I guess there were easly about 30-40 patients on gurneys. The walking wounded had their own waiting area near me packed with another 25-30 people. I was lucky to get a good spot against the back wall out of the way of all the jockying around of people.
My wife come back to see me and is freaking out about all the people every where. Says the ambalance ride was $15 and hospital registration was $30 and you pay (in advance) for each test. I feel better about the costs as I had just paid the ship $780 for their medical services.
Things seems to be moving fast as they call out names and a doctor comes over to have a look. Sometimes if a curtain was still hanging they would pull the curtain or there was a portable screen an aid kept trying to slide between gurneys. The guy in the cube next to me had been shot below the eye with small cal gun or pellet and they kept a patch over his eye. An older woman 70+ on the other side had fell in the shower but had slurred speach. They wheeled her out for xrays but soon she was back and was still there 10 hours later when I left. They tried to keep everyone in the same general area to keep up with them. There were no wrist bans like here in the US.
My wife has gotten her phone adjusted to Nassau signal and a few friends from the ship start stopping by. We keep thinking we will be out of there in a few hours. Knowing there were many people much worse off than me I tried to keep the wife from pushing the issue as she sat in the other waiting room with friends. About noon someone from the ship stops by and I hope they can do something, Nope only leaving a local phone number to call when we get released. We ask about just walking out, said we would be refused entry back to the ship and to the airport. We had a temperary Nassau visa good for only 7 days and must have a doctors release to leave the country.
I gets strange when police bring in a captive for medical exam. They are in and out much faster at under an hour. This happens 3-4 times.
Finely racking my brain for any state side travel aid I remember I have Coach-net an RV travel insurance that has some limited medical coverage. My wife call them but as we are not traveling by RV no coverage but they give her a number to some sort of emergency medical assistace. Soon she is talking to a "Dr Cliff" who asks the patients name and name and number of the hospital. This is about 4 pm ( 8 hours now)
Shortly a doctor shows up to say that Dr Cliff called inquiring about my status and she was going to try to work me in as fast as she could. She was not about to just sign me off and ordered blood work, chest xrays. They call the wife back to pay for the additional tests. We send the friends back to the ship saying we will see them later.
We knew the last flight left for Miami at 7pm and the cruise ship left at 6pm. At about 7:30 pm we get the doctors release. Out the door we go and call the ships agent. Says he will be there in 5 minutes, 30 minutes later he shows up.
Having not ate all day he takes us by a Mickey D's which is fine for me. We ask about hotels and he asks about price range. He drops us off at a nice colonal style bed and breakfast for $95 a night with free wi-fi and lobby internet access. We turn the window unit on and try to do airfair searches on the wife Iphone is not going well. We go back down the lobby where one PC is consumed by a 20 something male having 10 different online chats going. We get logged onto the other PC but it keeps freezing up if the air line search engine has to may options. Finaly get 2, 10 am flights to Miami with only a 5 hour layover then on the Houston. Only $395 pp for one way. We call the ships agent again with the flights, this time he is right on time for pick up at 7 am.
We do US customs at the Nassau airport which is nice. But you know the medical release they claimed we had to have? No one ever asked for it.
25 minute flight to Miami. Wife is feeling better now that we are back in the US even though most of the airport anouncements are made in spanish.
We land back at Houston IAH about 5 pm and have a friend waiting to pick up up. A stop at Whataburger then home about 7pm. That is a full 48 hours from the time we went down to the cruise ship medical department.
Moral of the story, always buy the travel insurance when traveling outside the US. Had we had travel insurance or deep pockets we could of went straight to a private hospital.
Next time I have to sit in a US ER room I just need to remember spending 11+ hours in Nassau public hospital. Others that were there before me were still there when we left.
PS, I am back to normal at home and the rest of the family gets back from the cruise tomorrow.
Down to see the ships doctor with cold sweats where they start an IV of fluids. They decide to keep me overnight and disembark me for medical care on Thursday Morning in Nassau. Said I would need a doctors release to rejoin ship or to fly home. By this time I am feeling much better having rehydrated with 3 bags of fluids. So off the wife and I go by ambalance from the ship. They ask where do I want to go to the private hospital noting it was very expensive and I did not buy travel insurance. So off we go to the public hospital.
We arrive at 8 am to find gurney's full of people every where. The ambalance driver finds me an empty gurney, wipes it down for me and puts a new paper sheet on it. Then wheels be back into a corner while the other takes my wife to sign me in. Of course I am still holding my IV bag and cathather foley bag in my lap. After about 30 minutes someones comes around to check my vitals which were normal. I tell her I just need to see the doctor and get a release to rejoin the ship before it sails at 6pm.
You would have to see this place, most ER rooms have private exam cubes but this one had removed all equipment from each exam cube. Every cube had 3 gurneys and all open areas were stacked 3x3. I guess there were easly about 30-40 patients on gurneys. The walking wounded had their own waiting area near me packed with another 25-30 people. I was lucky to get a good spot against the back wall out of the way of all the jockying around of people.
My wife come back to see me and is freaking out about all the people every where. Says the ambalance ride was $15 and hospital registration was $30 and you pay (in advance) for each test. I feel better about the costs as I had just paid the ship $780 for their medical services.
Things seems to be moving fast as they call out names and a doctor comes over to have a look. Sometimes if a curtain was still hanging they would pull the curtain or there was a portable screen an aid kept trying to slide between gurneys. The guy in the cube next to me had been shot below the eye with small cal gun or pellet and they kept a patch over his eye. An older woman 70+ on the other side had fell in the shower but had slurred speach. They wheeled her out for xrays but soon she was back and was still there 10 hours later when I left. They tried to keep everyone in the same general area to keep up with them. There were no wrist bans like here in the US.
My wife has gotten her phone adjusted to Nassau signal and a few friends from the ship start stopping by. We keep thinking we will be out of there in a few hours. Knowing there were many people much worse off than me I tried to keep the wife from pushing the issue as she sat in the other waiting room with friends. About noon someone from the ship stops by and I hope they can do something, Nope only leaving a local phone number to call when we get released. We ask about just walking out, said we would be refused entry back to the ship and to the airport. We had a temperary Nassau visa good for only 7 days and must have a doctors release to leave the country.
I gets strange when police bring in a captive for medical exam. They are in and out much faster at under an hour. This happens 3-4 times.
Finely racking my brain for any state side travel aid I remember I have Coach-net an RV travel insurance that has some limited medical coverage. My wife call them but as we are not traveling by RV no coverage but they give her a number to some sort of emergency medical assistace. Soon she is talking to a "Dr Cliff" who asks the patients name and name and number of the hospital. This is about 4 pm ( 8 hours now)
Shortly a doctor shows up to say that Dr Cliff called inquiring about my status and she was going to try to work me in as fast as she could. She was not about to just sign me off and ordered blood work, chest xrays. They call the wife back to pay for the additional tests. We send the friends back to the ship saying we will see them later.
We knew the last flight left for Miami at 7pm and the cruise ship left at 6pm. At about 7:30 pm we get the doctors release. Out the door we go and call the ships agent. Says he will be there in 5 minutes, 30 minutes later he shows up.
Having not ate all day he takes us by a Mickey D's which is fine for me. We ask about hotels and he asks about price range. He drops us off at a nice colonal style bed and breakfast for $95 a night with free wi-fi and lobby internet access. We turn the window unit on and try to do airfair searches on the wife Iphone is not going well. We go back down the lobby where one PC is consumed by a 20 something male having 10 different online chats going. We get logged onto the other PC but it keeps freezing up if the air line search engine has to may options. Finaly get 2, 10 am flights to Miami with only a 5 hour layover then on the Houston. Only $395 pp for one way. We call the ships agent again with the flights, this time he is right on time for pick up at 7 am.
We do US customs at the Nassau airport which is nice. But you know the medical release they claimed we had to have? No one ever asked for it.
25 minute flight to Miami. Wife is feeling better now that we are back in the US even though most of the airport anouncements are made in spanish.
We land back at Houston IAH about 5 pm and have a friend waiting to pick up up. A stop at Whataburger then home about 7pm. That is a full 48 hours from the time we went down to the cruise ship medical department.
Moral of the story, always buy the travel insurance when traveling outside the US. Had we had travel insurance or deep pockets we could of went straight to a private hospital.
Next time I have to sit in a US ER room I just need to remember spending 11+ hours in Nassau public hospital. Others that were there before me were still there when we left.
PS, I am back to normal at home and the rest of the family gets back from the cruise tomorrow.
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