Helicopters & Lights

It seems that I am cursed. Exactly one week into my contract on the Emerald Princess there was a medical emergency on board. A man who had just received eye surgery before the cruise was smacked in the eye by his wife’s elbow (apparently accidentally) and his eyeball literally imploded. Time was of the essence and drama ensued as a coast guard helicopter came and airlifted him to Florida.
Now, exactly one week into my contract on the Pacific Princess- more drama! Yesterday, a passenger went to the medical centre feeling very sick. His blood pressure dropped extremely low. After my trivia in the pacific lounge, Brett came over the loud speaker far more seriously than usual for a cruise director, calling for blood donors with A+ or O- blood.

During ceramics @ sea at 3pm, my ceramics ladies noticed that the ship had stopped dead in the water. I knew what was coming. Sure enough, 20 minutes later, Serious-style Brett came over the loud speaker, this time from the bridge. Medical evacuation time! We had to clear the open decks for the helicopter to arrive and winch the passenger without blowing banana lounges all over the Indian ocean. Passengers were kicked off the decks and everyone was running around dragging tables and chairs at lightning speed. Just as we got the deck cleared, the ship’s doctor arrived with the news that the helicopter was not coming until 8pm, making our extreme sweaty effort slightly unnecessary.

Now, at this point, after his blood transfusion, our sick passenger was stabilised- but no body (including me) knew what was going on . Passengers were being respectful but there were a lot of people wandering the corridors looking for information. On a ship of 700, everyone is acquainted with everyone and so their reason for curiosity was motivated by caring rather than gossip (a la the Emerald Princess situation).

At 7:30 Pm, everyone was deployed to “flying stations”. Frankie, Natalie and I were to guard the doors out onto the deck 9 pool from the panorama buffet. It was extremely exciting as the two helicopters approached – one from the Australian coast guard and one to perform the evacuation. Through our little peep hole in the door, we couldn’t see the helicopter, but we could see as the two medivac personell were winced down onto deck. The passenger was then wheeled out on a stretcher and airlifted up. There were people running about everywhere and all sorts of bright lights and signals. Eventually the personell were lifted up and the helicopters flew away.

So dramatic!

We have since had word that our passenger is in a stable condition in a Perth hospital and undergoing checks to discover what is wrong internally. With some luck he may be able to return to the world cruise in a few weeks. His wife is still on board for another day. She will fly to join him from Indonesia. Thank goodness he is OK!