2-10-04 Castaway Cay:

 Next morning we woke up at our next port---Castaway Cay (Disney's private island).

Had breakfast overlooking the port

  
Then we were headed off the ship

 This is the first time we've been to a cruise line's private island and I was impressed.

 Walking along the island

 Love Minnie's shirt!

 Of course, where you have Disney property, you have Disney stores, so we did a little shopping while on the island, too.

 I had read there was a snorkel trail and really wanted to check it out.   We spent about 1-2 hours snorkeling around there---not the greatest snorkeling, but still fun. 

 By then the family beach was getting pretty crowded.

  About noon we headed to lunch on the beach at Cookies Bar B Q. Again the food was outstanding.

 We had signed up for a snorkel excursion, headed to our meet up spot after lunch.

 Dad posing along the way

 All started well with the excursion.

 They took us out to a reef and we had life preservers. With the shallow reef, life preservers, and the tour guides that were supposedly keeping an eye on everyone, I was over confident in Dad's safety. He had snorkeled many times before and although he wasn't a strong swimmer and didn't pay too much attention to his surroundings, he did seem to enjoy himself and do ok.

 So I started venturing off a bit and coming back to check on him every few minutes. On one of my ventures, the excursion boat's horn sounded and they were frantically waving everyone back on board. My first thought was that a shark was sighted and I was back to the boat in a flash. Unfortunately it wasn't sharks! Dad was on the deck of the boat---totally unresponsive and breathing very fast---even had his eyes open, but fixed. I was scared unimaginably. One of the passengers was a nurse and she did keep check of his vitals until a medic on a jet ski met us on our way back in. Dad did come to enough to talk with me a bit, but kept saying he was tired. I was constantly talking to him to keep him awake. The medic said he was tired because he wasn't getting enough oxygen to his brain---but also said he wasn't deprived enough to cause damage. 

I was surprised to later learn that when he started taking in water, he actually was able to finish inflating his life preserver by blowing it up (he had it partially inflated originally). Then he swam on his back to the ship. There he had a "death grip" on the anchor rope. Passengers pulled him on board---leaving rope burn on his arm--and he collapsed on the deck. But none of the employees ever noticed him in distress.

 We were met at the excursion dock by a golf cart with a stretcher and were whisked off to the ship's infirmary. They went to pump his stomach which was very distended. The tube made him throw up---aspirating into his lungs first. The Drs weren't too concerned about that since it was salt water and he was being treated for that. Dad did manage to throw up about 2 gallons of salt water. Then they explained they were going to put him on a breathing machine to slow his breathing down and not tax his heart so much. They also said a helicopter would be coming for him in about 45 minutes and would be taking him to one of the Bahama Islands. While they intubated him, I was sent to my room to pack up and change. Shortly after getting back to the infirmary I was told no helicopter was coming---it would take too long, that that they would shove off as scheduled and dock in Freeport. I questioned them about the facilities there---having been to Freeport. Soon the nurse came back and said he would be going to Freeport, then flown to Miami or Ft. Lauderdale. Much relieved, I continued to sit with Dad. He had been drugged back into unconsciousness with tubes down his throat and nose and ivs everywhere. Finally they came and said a tug boat was meeting us (at sea) and taking us to Freeport where an ambulance would take us to a waiting lear jet ambulance.  There happened to be 1 extra seat in the ambulance, so I was able to fly with them and there was even room for our luggage behind my seat.  Also during all this time I was questioned several ltimes as to what happened and I was even called and told that I needed to charge his $4000 medical fees for treatment on board before we could leave the ship (they tried to charge it to his credit card, but he was using a new one with a $1000 limit). I was also allowed to make a couple frantic calls to Ken's answering phone at work. (the first time I called I was pretty hysterical, so they let me call back when I was a little calmer).

Finally they said a Dr. in Ft. Lauderdale accepted him as a patient and we waited for the tug to come. When the tug was there and we hopped from deck 1 to the tug---Dad in a bucket stretcher and totally out. It was about a 1/2 hour ride to Freeport. The jet was suppose to be waiting for us, but it wasn't there and they didn't know where it was. So we sat there waiting for word on the jet. Finally it arrived and we were loaded into an ambulance and transported to the airport. A respitory therapist and male nurse were there as well as 2 pilots. Apparently the delay was finding the 2 pilots and Dr. and nurse all required for medical air emergencies. They took over and were quick and skillful with their work---obviously having done this many times before unfortunately. Of course we still had to clear customs, but I had the passp0rts and filled out the forms on the plane and tug. An ambulance was waiting for us at the airport and soon we were on our way to North Ridge Medical Center in Ft. Lauderdale. We got there shortly after midnight---about 9 hours after Dad's accident! While I filled out yet more paperwork, they took dad up to ICU. They also gave me a list of hotels to call--but all were filled up! It was Daytona 500 weekend. The head ICU nurse offered me an empty room in the ICU that night and I took it. But I couldn't sleep with all the beebs going off and wondering if it was from Dad's machine.