Passengers, crew volunteer to give stricken woman blood after emergency on cruise ship

March 06--When Elaine Smith, 73, collapsed during her birthday cruise aboard the Carnival Liberty, some 150 passengers and crew volunteered to throw her a lifeline.

Of those willing to roll up their sleeves at sea to give blood so the ailing woman could get emergency transfusions, three were taken up on their offer.

"I couldn't believe it," said Smith's husband, Homer, 76, who also gave blood for his wife, who suffered a bleeding ulcer. "I was completely shocked by what they did, and they didn't know us."

The Smiths, of Omaha, Neb., have been married for 33 years and have taken almost as many cruises.

"We've been on the Carnival 27 times and had never gotten sick," he said. "This had nothing to do with any food; evidently, it was just an ulcer that decided to act up."

Homer Smith was at his wife's bedside when he heard the cruise director's voice on the ship's loudspeaker, calling for volunteer blood donors.

"I was with my wife when I heard this announced and after a little bit I went down the hall to Guest Services and I was overwhelmed," he said. "I didn't count the people but I was told there were over 150 people there."

Elaine Smith needed type B-positive blood. Her husband, a crewman and two women on the cruise were chosen from among the throng of volunteers. Each donated a unit of blood -- close to a pint -- for transfusions that would take about two hours each, Homer Smith said.

When informed of Elaine Smith's need for hospital care, the Carnival Liberty's captain increased the ship's speed and arrived in Grand Cayman about two hours ahead of schedule.

"When we got to Grand Cayman she got three [more units of blood at a hospital]," Homer Smith said. "On the air ambulance they gave her two [units], and she got three [at Broward Health Medical Center]."

The cruise had departed from the Port of Miami on Feb. 22 with stops in Belize, Mexico, Honduras and the Cayman Islands. The ship was scheduled to return Saturday but the Smiths arrived in Fort Lauderdale on Friday -- Elaine Smith's 73rd birthday -- on an emergency medical flight.

Tuesday night, another medical flight took the couple to Jacksonville, where daughter Roberta King is a nurse practitioner at St. Vincent's Medical Center Riverside.

"My daughter found out that [my wife] was taking a baby aspirin to help [prevent] heart attacks and strokes, but if you have a tender stomach it can do damage that way and I didn't realize that," Homer Smith said.

He gets emotional when recalling how everyone rallied to help his wife.

"[They were] really good. The doctor, the nurses, the people, Guest Services, and they said any time you want to call your daughter, come down here and just talk [on the ship's phone]," he said with a trembling voice. "They didn't charge me one thing. I think that's great. I appreciate that a lot. The situation was horrible but they were so good to us."

Carnival spokesman Vance Gulliksen said Carnival medical crews can screen prospective blood donors for HIV. New lab equipment will soon enable them to screen for hepatitis.

In emergencies, Carnival doctors prefer to recruit crew members for blood donations because they are screened for HIV, hepatitis B, hepatitis C and syphilis during routine physical examinations, he said. A patient's family members are also considered desirable donors if the blood type is compatible.

It's not the first time this has happened, Gulliksen said. Last Sept. 20, a 72-year-old man had a medical emergency aboard the Carnival Breeze.

"An urgent announcement was made asking crew members with O-positive blood who wished to volunteer to proceed to the Carnival Breeze's medical center," Gulliksen wrote in an email. "Within minutes, 42 crew members were at the medical center to donate blood."

The need for blood transfusions at sea is relatively rare, but regulations require cruise ships to meet certain guidelines for medical personnel and equipment, according to the Cruise Lines International Association.

"Our oceangoing cruise ships are required to follow the American College of Emergency Physicians guidelines that address appropriate emergency response and other medical needs that arise at sea," said spokesman David Peikin.

wkroustan@tribune.com or 954-356-4303

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