COULD IT HAVE BEEN ANY WORSE Mishandled medical emergency
Posted on 11/13/2015
Toronto retirees Cayetano and Ana Elisa Avelino were on a European cruise aboard the Regal Princess. A medical emergency and a series of judgement errors acknowledged by the cruise line caused the couple to endure delays in getting appropriate and timely health care.
Elisa told the CBC that the ship had left Copenhagen on the way to St. John’s, the only Canadian port of call on the itinerary, when her husband collapsed in the shower. After she screamed for help, her husband was taken to the medical centre on board, where they suspected he suffered possible brain hemorrhaging.
They were to arrive in St John’s the next day.
Avelino was told to pack their bags so that immediately upon disembarking, they could be rushed to a local hospital.
She said that when the ship docked into the St John’s harbour at 8 am the Avelinos were told to wait for the other passengers to leave first. The Regal Princess had over 3,600 passengers that morning.
By 10:00 when they were leaving the ship, Avelino and someone from the port carried her husband to a taxi. The cruise line has since issued a letter of apology for not having an ambulance waiting.
In fact a taxi had already been called for four other passengers so ship’s doctor determined it would be quicker for them to get in the taxi (with the other passengers) than wait for an ambulance.
The Avelino’s were taken to St Clare’s Mercy Hospital close to the harbour.
The CBC reported Avelino saying "My husband was at that point almost unconscious." She and the cab driver carried him from the taxi and into the hospital where she waited for 15 minutes before screaming for help saying she thought her husband was dying.
Medical personnel reacted. Avelino was diagnosed with a serious aneurysm and he was rushed to the Health Sciences Centre treatment.
Avelino, told the CBC that the medical team told her that if cruise staff had called 911 from aboard the ship, an ambulance would have taken her husband directly to the Health Sciences Centre for treatment.
Cayetano Avelino was in an induced coma for 16 days after which he was released on the condition that they travel by air ambulance at a cost of $23,000.
They had taken out travel insurance with Green Shield Canada, but air ambulance coverage was only for bringing patients into Canada, not within Canada. Again, St John’s was the only Canadian port on the itinerary.
"I feel lost and abandoned. Abandoned because I was sure that the insurance was going to help me to get home sooner," said Avelino "I was thinking, at one point, to mortgage my condominium."
Green Shield Canada told CBC the Avelinos have an industry-standard policy meant to repatriate Canadians who get sick or injured abroad back into the Canadian health-care system.
The medical team at the Health Sciences Centre eventually recommended the Avelinos fly commercial once her husband recovered.
The couple flew home on 07 Nov and received a letter of apology from the Princess Cruises admitting fault for not having called an ambulance for when the ship docked in St John’s.
Ana Elisa describes the medical team at Health Sciences Centre as angels; an apt description in light of their hellish experience.