Trouble at Sea
On our second day at sea, I was just sitting down to another Trivia Game when the captain's voice came over the loudspeaker.
"You may have noticed that the ship has been speeding. We have a very sick passenger on board and we are hurrying to Tortola. We were expecting to have her helicoptered off the ship but she has been stabilized. However, she needs a blood transfusion. If you are O or A negative, please come down to the ship's hospital."
I am lucky in that I am a universal donor, so off I went to give blood.
In the end they didn't need mine, but later the captain thanked everyone and announced that the response from passengers was absolutely overwhelming.
___________
The day before our cruise ended, we had occasion to check out the ship's hospital ourselves.
On a few occasions, Hans mentioned that he felt lightheaded and dizzy. That evening as we walked to our cabin after dinner he said, "I'm feeling a bit faint. I also briefly felt dizzy at dinner," he continued.
"Hold onto the rail," I replied concerned. "You better get that checked out when we get home." Although he'd had a completely physical only two weeks earlier and everything tested as normal.
At 5:00 a.m. he got up and briefly blacked out, dropping to the floor like a stone. I heard the thump when he fell and then nothing. By the time I got the light on, he was groaning and coming to, but couldn't move. Through some miracle he didn't hit anything in the small cabin on his way down, but he abraded his head and badly hurt his back. It took minutes for him to get up and agony to get back in bed where we waited for the pain to recede. It didn't. I phoned the ship's hospital at 6:00 and the nurse came to get him in a wheelchair.
I must say that the nurse and doctor were wonderful (although the doctor was so young and pretty I wanted to ask, "Does your mother know where you are?"
They did an EKG and gave him a shot of Voltarin to numb the pain. Lying on the bed with his back up, he felt dizzy again and the doctor started to lower the bed but the pain was so acute she had to stop.
Finally the shot kicked in and he could move enough to sit, so they took blood pressure lying down, sitting up and when he could, standing. The numbers changed each time but the doctor didn't seem alarmed.
We were both thankful that this was the day before we were to disembark as he was still lying in the hospital at 8:00 a.m. which was the time 24 hours later when we would have to leave.
In the end, the doctor gave us enough pain pills to control the worst of it through the long two flights home the next day and to see him through the weekend.
"You may have noticed that the ship has been speeding. We have a very sick passenger on board and we are hurrying to Tortola. We were expecting to have her helicoptered off the ship but she has been stabilized. However, she needs a blood transfusion. If you are O or A negative, please come down to the ship's hospital."
I am lucky in that I am a universal donor, so off I went to give blood.
In the end they didn't need mine, but later the captain thanked everyone and announced that the response from passengers was absolutely overwhelming.
___________
The day before our cruise ended, we had occasion to check out the ship's hospital ourselves.
On a few occasions, Hans mentioned that he felt lightheaded and dizzy. That evening as we walked to our cabin after dinner he said, "I'm feeling a bit faint. I also briefly felt dizzy at dinner," he continued.
"Hold onto the rail," I replied concerned. "You better get that checked out when we get home." Although he'd had a completely physical only two weeks earlier and everything tested as normal.
At 5:00 a.m. he got up and briefly blacked out, dropping to the floor like a stone. I heard the thump when he fell and then nothing. By the time I got the light on, he was groaning and coming to, but couldn't move. Through some miracle he didn't hit anything in the small cabin on his way down, but he abraded his head and badly hurt his back. It took minutes for him to get up and agony to get back in bed where we waited for the pain to recede. It didn't. I phoned the ship's hospital at 6:00 and the nurse came to get him in a wheelchair.
I must say that the nurse and doctor were wonderful (although the doctor was so young and pretty I wanted to ask, "Does your mother know where you are?"
They did an EKG and gave him a shot of Voltarin to numb the pain. Lying on the bed with his back up, he felt dizzy again and the doctor started to lower the bed but the pain was so acute she had to stop.
Finally the shot kicked in and he could move enough to sit, so they took blood pressure lying down, sitting up and when he could, standing. The numbers changed each time but the doctor didn't seem alarmed.
We were both thankful that this was the day before we were to disembark as he was still lying in the hospital at 8:00 a.m. which was the time 24 hours later when we would have to leave.
In the end, the doctor gave us enough pain pills to control the worst of it through the long two flights home the next day and to see him through the weekend.
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