Stranded in Mexico With a Deathly Ill Kid: One Mom’s Travel Nightmare

Peyton right before he undergoes surgery in Mexico. (Facebook/Christie Johnson)

The next big problem started once the ambulance arrived at the dock in Progeso, Mexico. Johnson claims the ambulance drivers wanted $2,000 to take her and her seriously ill son to the hospital. “They left us because I didn’t have the $2,000 to give to them,” Johnson says. The ship’s doctor made more calls and was able to arrange transport to a local hospital.

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Once at the hospital, Johnson learned the situation was much worse than she feared; tests showed Peyton’s appendix had ruptured and he needed emergency surgery. That bit of bad news quickly was followed by another. “[The hospital] wanted not $2,000 but $3,300,“ says Johnson. “They wanted payment before they did the surgery. They also told me that it could be more, depending on what exactly it looked like when they got in there.”

Johnson did not have enough to pay for the surgery, nor could she afford an emergency medical evacuation back to the United States. (Johnson doesn’t have health insurance — not that it would have mattered, but more on that later). Even if she’d had the money to pay for the treatment and get home, she and Peyton wouldn’t have been able to enter the U.S. because they didn’t bring U.S. passports on the cruise. They had U.S. passport cards, which allow entry back to the U.S. from Mexico by land and sea but not by air. 

You can cruise Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and the Caribbean with a Passport Card like this one. But you’re better off with a real passport, as Christie learned the hard way. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)  

“We were all the way down in the Yucatán Peninsula in southern Mexico,” she says. “There was no driving out of there with a child who needed constant medical attention.” Their cruise ship continued on its journey without them, meaning the two were literally stuck in Mexico in a hospital that was charging them $900 a day. “I was completely crushed and devastated,” Johnson says, “I felt helpless and out of control.” 

Rallying to help

A welcome thumbs-up sign (Facebook/Christie Johnson)

Fortunately, things started to turn in their favor. Johnson says her aunt back in the U.S. put up the money for Peyton’s surgery, where doctors removed Peyton’s appendix and part of his bowel. The cruise line helped out too. “Carnival, they were good to us,” says Christie. A member of Carnival’s CareTeam flew from Miami to Mexico to help Johnson and translate for the doctors and nurses, many of whom spoke little or no English.

Perhaps the biggest assist came from the GoFundMe page Johnson’s friends back home in Ohio set up to pay for Peyton’s nearly $9,000 hospital bill.

Another ship that docked in Progreso during Peyton’s hospital stay sent over some toys and get-well gifts.

“Within about three days, we were able to raise enough money that we felt we could pay the bills and get the flights booked and get her started on the way home,” Steve  Johnson, Christie’s uncle, tells Yahoo Travel. “It was $5 and $10 donations. Everyone came together.” Even Christie and Peyton’s fellow passengers on the Elation ponied up. So did the cruise line; Steve says Carnival made a $3,000 donation. (Carnival confirmed its assistance in a statement to Yahoo Travel: “Our CareTeam worked toward funding the family’s return home. Additionally, Carnival had previously provided the family with a full refund of their cruise fare.”)  

This past Saturday, with emergency passports provided by the U.S. Consulate, Christie and Peyton left Mexico for Houston, Texas. Christie’s uncle Steve, who lives in Texas, says the flight and medical escort cost an additional $6,000 — pricey, yes, but still less than it would have cost to fly them all the way home to Ohio.

Peyton finally leaves Mexico. On the left is Carlos, the Carnival CareAgent. On the right is Peyton’s medical escort, who accompanied Peyton and Christie back to the U.S. His name is also Carlos. (Facebook/Christie Johnson)

What we can learn from this ordeal

Peyton, back in the U.S., heads for Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston. (Facebook/Christie Johnson)

Christie says there are things other travelers can learn from what she went through. For one, instead of the limited (and cheaper) passport cards Christie was saddled with in Mexico, she recommends springing for a full-fledged U.S. passport book whenever you step foot off U.S. soil. While she admits her passport situation “was the least of our worries” during her son’s ruptured appendix scare, dealing with passports, visas, and consulates was an extra headache she did not need.  

Carnival agrees. “We understand the family did not have passports or travel insurance,” the cruise line tells Yahoo Travel in a statement. “Though not required, both are highly recommended and could have been beneficial in this instance.”

And that’s the other big lesson: purchase travel insurance when traveling abroad, something Christie freely admits would have saved her a world of trouble. She’s a novice traveler (that plane ride from Mexico to Houston turned out to be her first-ever flight) and she left most of the cruise planning to others. “This was our first cruise,” she says. “It was booked on a whim.”

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Sadly, that’s a common story among travelers who suffer medical emergencies overseas and learn the hard way that the health insurance they may enjoy back home doesn’t do much good internationally. “It is important for travelers to know about any limitations of domestic health insurance policies while out of the country,” says Jim Grace, CEO of InsureMyTrip.com, a website that helps you comparison shop between different travel insurance policies. “In most cases, there are gaps in coverage. Some gaps are significant.” Grace points out that in addition to paying overseas medical bills not covered by U.S.-based health plans, the right travel insurance plans will cover international medical evacuations back home to the U.S. — a cost that can run into six figures and, again, likely won’t be covered by your U.S. health plan.

Says Christie: “If you plan to travel, whether it’s a cruise or whatever, I would look into purchasing travel  insurance. That would have really helped us in the situation we were in.”

The recovery

Peyton has a few days before he’s deemed healthy enough to return home to Ohio. (Facebook/Christie Johnson)

Now that Peyton’s recovering at Texas Children’s Hospital, everyone just wants to get back to Ohio and end this miserable journey once and for all. “We’re thinking we can go home Friday,” says Christie Johnson, noting that doctors want to keep him for a few more days to make sure there isn’t a secondary infection. “He’s a little sore at the moment but we’re hoping he’s doing good.”

While things could have gotten a lot worse, the ordeal is far from over. “[Christie] is missing work, she’s separated from her [other] kids,“ says Steve Johnson. “Unfortunately she’s not insured.” Christie’s hoping Peyton’s GoFundMe page will help defray some of the cost of his hospital stay in Houston.

But for now, all Christie can do is sit by her son’s bedside and ponder how something that could have been a great travel adventure — first cruise, first foreign trip, first plane ride — could become part of  an unimaginable nightmare. Says Christie: “I never envisioned anything going wrong on a five day cruise.”

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