Reflection: Grateful For Onboard Doctors Whilst Abroad

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While at sea or far flung to the corners of the earth, having a doctor onsite can really be the difference between a dream and a nightmare.

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Our Infant Son Was Inconsolable

We travel everywhere with our kids, and now that our business is fully in the travel sector, even business meetings often involve the kids coming along (though not to the meetings themselves, of course.) Our children are great travelers because since before they were crawling they had been all over. Our youngest is on pace to match his sister in country count, he will achieve at least 12 unique countries (some of them multiple times) by the time he is 24 months old.

And they travel as we do in business class, suites, and lounges but the expectations are higher for them because there’s a not-so-subtle prejudice around kids in those spaces. As I have covered before, you’ll never see our kids running through the halls, throwing food, or the other hallmarks that people assume happens when a child is in a premium environment. When they need to get up and move around, we help them do that. When my youngest son is fussy, we remove him from the situation.

We were on an incredible super yacht cruise ship and our son wasn’t doing well. Due to storms, we left Bermuda and were at sea for days staying in good weather conditions and trying to wait out weather formations in the mid-Atlantic. He progressed from unusually fussy to consistent tantrums. We followed our usual protocols, extended naps, every tool we had we deployed.

But none of it worked. He was writhing in pain despite careful dosing with infant ibuprofen. We were at a loss.

Is There A Doctor Onboard?

On the phone in our suite, there’s a button for the med bay. We pushed it, something we had never done onboard before. A doctor picked up late into the evening and came to our room. Within a few minutes, dressed in scrubs with a medical bag and stethoscope around his neck, the doctor began examining our son. He wasn’t seeing any telltale signs so he contacted his nurse.

She came up and began distracting our son by blowing up a latex glove and getting him to open his mouth where she suspected there might be an issue. She found the problem and then asked about our dosage schedule for his ibuprofen. She provided an elevated schedule, we administered a new dosage while they were both in the room and within about ten minutes he was out like a light.

Comfort To Beleaguered Parents

Any parent with a sick child can testify to just how exhausting it can be. Worst of all, you just want comfort for your child and would do anything to switch places. Finally, he was comfortable and we could all rest. More than that, we were happy that when we called someone they were there and able to provide a remedy.

In our small group aboard this very small ship another person (not a child) fell quite badly. Not only were staff able to get her to the med bay but x-rays were performed, and after determining nothing was broken, a walking boot was distributed. It was coincidental that we had insight into a second person served by the medical staff during our weeklong journey but it reinforced that had something more serious been at play for our son, resources were available.

Conclusion

We’ve been fortunate to not need medical help while traveling with our children all these years. But the comfort felt when we really needed help was fantastic. In retrospect, we would have skipped this trip altogether had we known what he was going through. But the staff was incredible, responsive and put our worst fears to bed.

What do you think? Have you been sick abroad or at sea? How was it resolved?