Have you ever had a medical emergency in a Disney park or resort; what did you do?

[disneyplanningdad]

We were with friends at the Indy Jones show whe their DD toddler fell off the bench and hit her head. They ran up the stairs and cast members escorted them to First aid immediatly. We were in the row in front of them and didn't even know they left until another CM told us what had happened and where we could find them after the show. No fuss no muss. She turned out to be fine.

 

[Steph5324]

My boyfriend and I were at AK waiting for the Jammin Jungle Parade to begin when a family behind us started to get upset. It all happened really quickly and I can't remember if they even yelled for help but suddenly a CM appeared, grabbed their baby (about a year old) and took off running down the street which was luckily empty because the parade was starting in minutes. As the CM and the mom took off I got a quick glance at the baby's face. It was blue and still. The baby had choked on popcorn. It was horrifying.

The dad stayed behind with the family's other child and they were clearly in shock, as was everyone around them. The parade started but everyone was pretty subdued, not knowing what was going on with the baby. It wasn't long before the CM came back to get the father and other child and let us all know that the baby was fine.

Just like everyone has said, CM's seem to come out of nowhere to help. I saw it again when my son appeared to be lost (he wasn't) and the CM's appeared out of the blue to help him.

Even with the happy ending, the parade route in our area remained pretty subdued. At Boma that night we toasted in thanks for someone watching out for that baby.

 

[LRav19]

Last February I brought a baseball and softball team to Disney World for Spring Training. On the last night there were a couple of the boys wrestling in their room, things boys do, and one of them dislocated his shoulder. I called the front desk to ask them what to do and they connected me with 911. The ambulance came and the resort manager said that Disney would pay for the ambulance ride. We did not have cars. They also told me that when we were finished at the hospital to call a cab and get a reciept. In her words "It was on the Mouse" they paid for the cab ride. Needless to say they treated us very well.

 

[Princess MaryPoppins]

We had a lady go into labour in the toilets next to our restaurant!!! One of our girls who spoke spanish had to go in and see her, we got security and paramedics on the scene and all was good! not many people can say theyve gone into labour in Magic Kingdom!

 

[kaybird]

Maintenence found my DH on the floor of the FW cabins, he was immediately transported to the hospital, CM found me at Le Cellier by our ADR's, and escorted me to the front of EPCOT where they took me in a VIP van to the hospital. They acted quickly and professionally, and we couldn't have been in better hands.

 

[MsPlutoNJ]

Have you ever had a medical emergency in a Disney park or resort; what did you do?

1) Yes.
2) Felt like I was having a heart attack
. . . sweaty palms
. . . chest pains
. . . nausea
. . . heart palpitations
. . . light headed
3) Was ready to call 911.
4) Wife put down the blown glass crystal castle and my symptoms went away.

 

[Lovin Mickey]

DS4 barfed all over the loading area just as we were getting on Pirates. Before I even realized it was vomit the CM was on the phone to get it cleaned up. He was very gracious and said it happens all the time as I apologized for the thousanth time. DS was fine, we think it was motion sickness from Splash Mountain. Forty five minutes later he was running around Donalds Boat.

 

[gullyf]

One thing to always be aware of is the cost of medical transportation home if that turns out to be necessary. Happened to my MIL a couple of years ago... my 2 SIL's took them down for an anniversary gift, but MIL ended up in the hospital down there and the cost to transport back home was $8000! The "family" was asked to kick in 2k each. Kinda ticked me off since we were never even informed of the trip in the first place, and would have raised the question since we knew there were health problems and that such transport was expensive, having looked into it a few years before when we took my mother down. Despite the idea that they got the doctors ok before hand, if they weren't prepared to shoulder the cost of such an event the trip never should have been made. In the end, it almost cost MIL her life and didn't end up as much of a vacation. Be realistic and use a little wisdom/common sense when making the determination.

Bottom line, realize that medical transportation back home for any distance can be expensive, and if you aren't prepared to face that expense alone if necessary then you had better confer with others who might have to share that expense before hand and get them on board at the start.

 

[wdhinn89]

One thing to always be aware of is the cost of medical transportation home if that turns out to be necessary. Happened to my MIL a couple of years ago... my 2 SIL's took them down for an anniversary gift, but MIL ended up in the hospital down there and the cost to transport back home was $8000! The "family" was asked to kick in 2k each. Kinda ticked me off since we were never even informed of the trip in the first place, and would have raised the question since we knew there were health problems and that such transport was expensive, having looked into it a few years before when we took my mother down. Despite the idea that they got the doctors ok before hand, if they weren't prepared to shoulder the cost of such an event the trip never should have been made. In the end, it almost cost MIL her life and didn't end up as much of a vacation. Be realistic and use a little wisdom/common sense when making the determination.

Bottom line, realize that medical transportation back home for any distance can be expensive, and if you aren't prepared to face that expense alone if necessary then you had better confer with others who might have to share that expense before hand and get them on board at the start.

I really don't think many people would even think about that other then when they are cruising. Many people would never be able to go on vacation if they had to think about having $8000 for medical transportation set aside to be transported home during the SLIGHT chance something may happen. Sorry I don't know the situation at home with your in-laws but you sound very bitter and unrealistic.

 

[honeymo78]

Last Oct DH developed severe abdominal pain and nausea. He never gets sick and knew something wasn't right. We were in our room at CR at the time and I called the front desk who patched me to Reedy Creek and sent an ambulance. We ended up at Celebration Hospital for about 20hrs - DH had kidney stones. Disney was great - mousekeeping cleaned up the bathroom, the front desk reimbursed at least one of my cab rides to/from the hospital, gave us a dessert plate, and checked in several times to make sure we were all okay the rest of our trip.

 

[pawn626]

I had a kidney stone attack on our last trip 8/07 at three in the morning, had my dh call 911. front end manager was there in two minutes don't know how he knew about it, maybe they are hooked up to all the 911 lines? taken to celebration hospital, told dh to stay at hotel with ds i would call later. i called a cab later that day, and upon returning to the resort disney reimbursed me the cab fee. i thought that was great customer service on there behalf. it is the happiest place on earth.

 

[Ctsplaysinrain]

I really don't think many people would even think about that other then when they are cruising. Many people would never be able to go on vacation if they had to think about having $8000 for medical transportation set aside to be transported home during the SLIGHT chance something may happen. Sorry I don't know the situation at home with your in-laws but you sound very bitter and unrealistic.

This is a good reason to buy trip insurance... Most o fthem will cover things like this.

 

[sbell111]

Last September, I was having chest pains while at MK. My wife ended up driving me to the Celebration Hospital ER. They were pretty awesome. It ended up being a gall bladder attack which they got settled down.

I finally had it taken out last Friday.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

I had a kidney stone attack on our last trip 8/07 at three in the morning, had my dh call 911. front end manager was there in two minutes don't know how he knew about it, maybe they are hooked up to all the 911 lines? taken to celebration hospital, told dh to stay at hotel with ds i would call later. i called a cab later that day, and upon returning to the resort disney reimbursed me the cab fee. i thought that was great customer service on there behalf. it is the happiest place on earth.

The Resort is not hooked up to 911. However, it is policy that the Resort be notified by Reedy Creek Emergency Services of any call from a Resort.

 

[Disney Spaz]

We were there Christmas of 2002 and my 2 DS and I got the Norwalk virus. First DS then 11 started throwing up then DS 12 followed suite. I called the front desk and we were transported to Celebration Hospital where I then collapsed as they were checking in my DS's. When we were re-hydrated Disney sent a van to pick us all up and took us the get our perscriptions and ginger ale to settle our stomach's. We had trip insurance and they paid for us to stay several more day until we were well enough to travel. I have always felt the travel insurance is well worth the cost for this very reason.

 

[gullyf]

I really don't think many people would even think about that other then when they are cruising. Many people would never be able to go on vacation if they had to think about having $8000 for medical transportation set aside to be transported home during the SLIGHT chance something may happen. Sorry I don't know the situation at home with your in-laws but you sound very bitter and unrealistic.

Quite the contrary, if you are traveling a long distance with an elderly person with perhaps known medical conditions, it is very realistic. Sniffing the fairy dust to the point where at least one person isn't dealing with directly with reality is a recipe for disaster. I am saying that you need to consider the probabilities involved. I even consider it when we go, but everyone in our family is in good health, so the probability is fairly low.

If there are known conditions you had better consider the probabilities, or you are going to be faced with a rather large bill unexpectedly. One poster has mentioned travel insurance. That works, but generally pre-existing conditions are excluded, so would have been of no use in this situation. Believe me, insurance companies know a bad risk when they see one or they wouldn't stay in business. Note that I do now get travel insurance for myself and my family when we travel, just for peace of mind.

The take away points here are that one naturally needs to (honestly) assess the nature and severity of any medical conditions, recognize that travel is stressful (which was a factor in MIL's instance), and that medical transportation home is probably going to be very expensive if it becomes required. If you are still comfortable with the risks, both to the individual and finances, then go for it. But just make sure it is an honest assessment, and in the worst case make sure that you understand you are potentially risking someone's life for a couple of days in Disney. Yeah, yeah, I know: life is a risk blah blah blah. But probabilities change depending on circumstances... as the travel insurance companies are well aware.

One more thing: our family's experience with the local hospital was less than wonderful, but there were also possibly some mitigating circumstances. Suffice it to say that if there are known conditions, it might be helpful to have some form of medical records immediately available. I don't know how that works or if there are such records you can get for such purposes, but in our case there were complications because of incomplete information. Perhaps others can provide solutions.

You may refrain from flaming as well, or trying to assign this to some sort of faulty mental state. I am simply trying to give the original poster some food for thought based on our experiences. They are free to consider it or not.

Regards

Gully

 

[Mouseaholic!!!]

Pancreatitus at the Grand Floridian (threw up in ALL the bathrooms there. They have very nice bathrooms!).

3 am my friend and I wandered down to Guest Services. They offered to drive us, my friend had a car. Off to Celebration Health (go somewhere else if you are really ill).

GF staff game me a card with their information if I needed a ride back to the resort. My friend, a physician attending a medical conference, brought me back to the hotel. Checked out AMA (against medical advice).

I spent one more night at the GF- very ill.

I flew home on the first flight the next day with really GREAT drugs for the pain and nausea. Southwest would NEVER have let me fly if they knew how ill I was, by the way.

Met at the airport in Baltimore and wisked off to my local hospital for a TWO WEEK stay!!!


GF was beyond nice. They called my friend a couple of times to checkin on me the last night....asked if we needed anything.

Bottom line - far easier to be ill at WDW if you are traveling with a physician! I probably would not have had the courage to checkout and fly home without him there -- and I would have spent 2 weeks in a hospital far from home and family.

 

[krismas29]

We were just in the World 9/19-9/29/08 and my niece (2 yrs old) began acting lethargic at MK. She was hot to the touch, so we brought her to the first aid station and they were concerned. She had a temperature of 103.7 and they recommended that we take her to the hospital. We went (on our own, no ambulance) to the hospital in Celebration where she was treated for an infection and released.

The hospital was phenomenal. Within a few moments of walking in, a nurse was evaluating my niece while an assistant led the rest of the party to the waiting area and offered us coffee and soft drinks. The atmosphere was more like a hotel lobby than an emergency room and was complete with a 2-station computer work area for visitors.

My niece was examined by a physician within 10 mins of arrival. After a culture was taken, a Family Care Specialist came into the room with a good-sized teddy bear for my niece to keep and a large box of crayons and markers. My niece was able to color all over the paper sheet that covered the exam bed and she really perked up because of that. The physician checked in on her frequently and apologized for the unusually long wait (about 1 hour) as another little girl had arrived with a burst appendix and needed urgent care. I can't imagine what a typical wait time is, as we all thought the experience was remarkably quick and efficient and that the staff was just great.

After seeing the hospital in Celebration, I would have no worries about needing urgent medical care while in Disney.

 

[goofygrl4]

just find a cast member they will get on a walkie and get help ASAP!

We had a minor medical problem, not really an emergency but the cast member's were helpful (well everyone but the first person I delt with) my brother had sun stroke and was super weak and sick and passed out in a bathrrom. I went and got a wheel chair from first aid (that was were the not so friendly or helpful person was , she wasn't going to give me the chair so I took it and said I'd be back and she better get a better attiude) any way once she saw my super sick brother and to care of him and figured he just needed to rest, she got on the phone and a manager came and took us in a private van to his (my brothers) hotel so he could shower and rest. WELL he ended up getting sicker and called the lobby of his hotel ( we left him there he told us to leave becuase he was just going to sleep) They called him and ambulance and took him off to a hospital, in the mean time we had NO CLUE about this. I got on the phone with the front desk and they told me that they called 911 for him, once we tracked him down at the celebration hospital , the manager of at guest services at MK PERSONALLy drove us in a private disney van to the hospital, left his cell number with us and when we were ready to go back to the resort after they gave my bro fluides and some meds he came back and got us.

 

[Mary976]

We had excellent care after a medical emergency with DD, but the urgent care center did not take our insurance. I had to pay up from (yikes!) and get reimbursed at home. I always bring my "emergency" credit card on vacation with me, but after that experience we've bought travel insurance.

Mary