The QE2's Hospital

[Blue Bombay]

This is a place that people dont normally like to visit.But back in 1996 i had a severe stomach infection and i had to stay 2 days in the Hospital.At least i had a open porthole and a blonde nurse lol.

On 3 ocassions when i was in Special Muster as the Stretcher Party we were called for a real emercencies.

Has anyone else spend a night in the Hospital ? Or ever seen the Medical Team in action somewhere around the ship.

Louis

[Peter Mugridge]

My wife spent a night in there when she had an epileptic fit on board on her birthday on our honeymoon!

( And of course the insurance refused to pay up... )

[Cruise_Princess]

My wife spent a night in there when she had an epileptic fit on board on her birthday on our honeymoon!

( And of course the insurance refused to pay up... )

oh dear not too great a memory...the birthday or honeymoon was bad enough but  not both!!  poor soul.

I remember having to go down in the early hours of the morning as couldnt get contact lenses out just after leaving capetown...seemingly the dryness of the atmosphere made them stick in like glue...it was pretty horrible having the doc get them out first of all anaestheatic which turned my eyes orange..( i didnt know this till lthey were out!)   it was pretty uncomfortable...but earlier in the cruise my mums lips were badly sunburnt and whilst in durban we saw some wild aloe vera on the roadside so picked some and she put it on her lips..unbeknown to either of us that it dries BRIGHT ORANGE...which ties up with my eyes....for a couple of days we were like a double act ...mum had bright orange lips and i had bright orange eyes!!!  A funny story to tell.....and yes despite the discomfort it was hilarious on board as well!!

keeping on the  hosp theme...yest ..again...my mum!! she shut my hand in the car door...OUCH...pretty messy..had to grab something to wrap my hand in to go to hospital...guess what I had...a pristine QE2 damask napkin.....needless to say the hospital was very impressed!! LOL...got a broken finger and a smashed up hand....but good old QE2 got me through it she was by my side all the time!!!   oh god i think I need counselling! haha

[Peter Mugridge]

Very true, not the best memory - and it was partly her fault for not listening to the doctor earlier in the day when he told her to lie down after she felt a bit woozy.  She had overdone it the night before, insisting on us staying at some dance thing in the party area near the stern ( one deck up or down from the Lido restaurant??? ) until about 00.30; that of course was 23.30 UK time and her normal bedtime is 21.00 to 22.00 as her medication makes her drowsy.  I had been trying for 90 minutes to persuade her to call it a night!

A few hours later she said she felt fine and I couldn't persuade her to keep resting, with the obvious result about ½ hour later.

I got my revenge - in our honeymoon album there is a photo, taken by the nurse, showing her in the hospital bed; I am standing next to her with my arms outstretched in an exaggerated palms upwards "rolleyes" gesture...

The nurse, incidentally, came up with a classic clanger; forgetting where we were while trying to make me feel better about it she said to me: "Don't worry; worse things happen at sea!"

[jdl]

I never had the pleasure or should that be pain (!) of visiting, I did have to go to the medical c-6 centre on a couple of occasions for sea sickness pills for the other half.  Without sounding daft, was the hospital located close to there?
jdl

[Blue Bombay]

I never had the pleasure or should that be pain (!) of visiting, I did have to go to the medical c-6 centre on a couple of occasions for sea sickness pills for the other half.  Without sounding daft, was the hospital located close to there?

Same place.

Louis

[pete cain]

My wife took ill just after leaving Cadiz, enroute  Bay of biscay home on our last ever visit on QE2, she was really ill but have to say she had the best treatment possible , All the senior medical staff tended to her at 02.30 am, she had many tests & examinations (the results of some even being sent off to U S A for second opinions). We have nothing but praise for the medics on QE2 at that time. I got to talking to one of the senior nurses & she hated dear old QE2 , she much preffered the stainless steel/ sheet glass modern babies, she particularly disliked the foreward crew areas of QE2 , said it was a horrid maze , Suppose that's the difference between a couple of weeks wearing rose coloured glasses & day in day out living onboard, (at least as far as she was concerned). Even now I remember going down & round that stairway to the Medical centre & that smell just got stronger the lower you got, diesel, smells of years & years of service smells from the keep fit centre , which if I remember correctly was below the medical centre, even if it wasn't , I can still smell it all now....

[Blue Bombay]

I got to talking to one of the senior nurses & she hated dear old QE2 , she much preffered the stainless steel/ sheet glass modern babies, she particularly disliked the foreward crew areas of QE2 , said it was a horrid maze

I bet no one forced her to work on the QE2.I hated this kind of crew.

Louis

[Cruise_Princess]

SO do I Louis....

99% of her crew were wonderful  ..like family...great happy people....but just sometimes there was  just one...the permanent moaner...and sorry I have to say the majority of that 1% were mainly eastern european....we didnt ask them to take the job...so they have no need to be rude or sulky with the passengers.....there was a total of 5 on the final voyage.....I wonder where they have been 'shipped' to now? 

Have to say on a personal level the medical crew were always  great whenever I had the 'misfortune' ( maybe could use a better word but you know what i mean!) to meet them...professionally.

[Cunardqueen]

When was the last time the hospital was used for an operation? is it correct that owing to the prospect of  litigation in recent years the Operating theatre was rarely used for the purpose of an operation?
 

[QE2lover]

In response to use of the operating room, during one Christmas cruise the ship was stopped at sea to perform an operation on someone who had fallen down the stairwell (middle of the stairs). They were then airlifted very early a.m. from the helicopted deck. An announcement was made onboard regarding stopping the ship and then regarding the airlift, even thought the airlift was scheduled to take place while passengers were asleep.

[Beardy Rich]

I can remember the ship receiving a call for medical assistance en-route to NY from So'ton circa 1985. The ship stopped on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland to pick up a fisherman who had badly injured his eye in an accident. He was seen by the medics in the hospital but I never heard any more about the incident.

On another occasion, I had to make use of the medical facilities myself once. I wrenched my back and it was extremely painful. Hobbling from my cabin to C-six took an age and waiting to be seen by someone was agonising.
Fortunately, I received some excellent treatment and made a complete recovery after a couple of days.

[qe2crew]

I recall back in 1977. A load of us returned from leave to Hong Kong, during the World Cruise. We had been back 3 days and about 100 of us fell sick with yellow jaundice. I was one of those who was hospitalized. The World Health organization came on in Honolulu and asked us all questions. I went back to work upon arriving in Long Beach.

We had picked up a bug in the food, in Nairobi, that was loaded on our British Airtours charter from Cape Town to London. It incubated all that time and hit us all at once. They had head waiters waiting on tables, because so many waiters were sick!!

Not a pleasant feeling getting that ill.

[QE2 Canuck]

Luckily I didn't have to use the medical facilities but on my very first crossing EB in June of 1996   I went down stairway C to six deck to have a peak at the hospital ( being a retired Registered Nurse, I was curious.).... also on that same trip in the Mauretania Restaurant we had a table for 8, 7 which were passengers and the 8th was one of the ships doctors... Dr. Nigel Roberts... Yes, the one who wrote the book C6....he was an interesting table host and regaled us with many stories...(3 of us at that table were Registered Nurses, myself and a couple from the Sunderland area.)..
Another time I watched the medical team and crew in action... just beginning an EB crossing in June of 2001, a passenger in our Caronia Dining Room collapsed...and later that night it was decided that he should be transferred off the ship to a hospital in Halifax, Nova Scotia.....so we veered off our course and headed towards the Nova Scotia coastline and sat there in thick fog, all the lights on the ship glowing and the fog horn going every 3-4 minutes and waited until a Canadian Coast Guard ship came out from Halifax to meet us... and in the fog and the heaving waves, the medical team and crew managed to get the patient on the stretcher over on to the coast guard boat...I stood and watched on Boat Deck in the fog and dampness, leaning as far over the rail as I could..... was very impressed !!!

Linda