Deadly Trip of a Lifetime: Covid Cruises

[Music] antarctica is like the jewel in the crown really it's another world once you've done antarctica unfortunately everything else seems a little bit dull my wife was against me going and i said to her well i'll probably live to tell the tale and turns out i did and it's quite a tale it's the tale of more than 200 people who embarked on an antarctic cruise during a pandemic at a cost of around twenty thousand dollars australian company aurora expeditions was offering passengers a taste of adventure but for some it would end in tragedy march 23 3 patients with fever march 24 5 patients with fever more than half of them got covered 19. we said we have to do something these people cannot stay in that boat for longer for one person the trip would be fatal they got a wheelchair and popped her in the wheelchair and that's the last i saw of her [Applause] melbourne's second wave lockdown prevents me from traveling overseas for dateline ah no you can't have my phone all right take my phone take my phone cooped up at home instead i've been puzzling over the saga of the ship named after australian mountaineer greg mortimer buenos dias dr randall bueno hello how are you the greg mortimer was like a microcosm of the pandemic where everyone experiences the same events differently hi there for some the virus threatened their vacation for others their livelihood or even their life our story begins on the 15th of march in ushuaia on the southern tip of latin america four days after the world health organization declared a global pandemic [Music] the plan was to set off that afternoon crossing the drake passage to the antarctic peninsula then to south georgia the falklands and back to argentina for me was a completely surprise in the moment that the new group of passengers came on board my name is mauricio uzmi i'm the emergency medical doctor in medellin colombia and also i was the medical officer on board of the greg mortimership march 11 the world health organization gave the alert about the pandemic condition regarding the coronavirus that's mean for us that we are on the risk with the new embarkation the possible the new passengers maybe someone is sick and these people will bring the virus on board for us angela gavilan is also colombian but lives in chile she's worked on cruise ships for more than 14 years as a maid company while many crew members were afraid of the trip going ahead some of the passengers were afraid it wouldn't i'm anthony phillip i live in sydney i used to fly for 20 years as a long-haul flight attendant and i've traveled to over 170 countries and territories so how are you feeling about the decision to embark on another international holiday when coronavirus was obviously affecting some parts of the world not unconcerned and not unaware but not believing that there was any inherent danger about what i was about to embark on on the 15th of march we had a pre-trip briefing hosted by the managing director of aurora expeditions and he assured us that it was without doubt the safest place on the planet to be there was no corona whatsoever [Music] i would have been disappointed had it not gone ahead because i had been anticipating this life dream for some time and look really looking forward to it graham padgett is a retired surgeon from denmark west australia who had a lifelong dream of walking with penguins he booked a cabin on the greg mortimer with his wife rose who was also celebrating her 75th birthday there were several in our party who were very concerned that the trip was going ahead and they had expressed these misgivings to the management of the trip but they were told that it was going to go ahead and if they chose to pull out then there would be no refund or recourse [Music] the greg mortimer was the last cruise ship to leave ushuaia i remember being overwhelmed with excitement i was pinching myself it was just truly such an a remarkable experience to be pushing back from the port of ushuaia embarking on this trip that i had hoped to accomplish many many years ago and now it was actually happening tell me about the first night yes we had a party for rose because it was her birthday and also from one of the other guys from denmark so it was a joint birthday party and good celebration how does it feel looking back on that now to be honest i can't remember much about it the events that followed on from that have just shadowed over it i'm afraid for me the first sign that the greg mortimer might be in trouble came just hours after it set off when argentina's president made a live televised address their route back was now blocked it was almost like the trap was already sprung this was already my feeling of oh dear you know this could uh this could not go well [Music] my name's jeff green i live in new zealand and i was the expedition doctor on the greg mortimer [Music] it clearly was that we're going to have to find a plan b straight away so we were going to do a trip to the peninsula and then we were going to fly out from the falklands back home it was a few more days before passengers were told of the plan to cut the trip short and leave from the falklands they felt that everything possible was being done to ensure their safety there were sanitizing stations everywhere to clean your hands they kept reminding us that this was necessary before going into eat in the dining room they literally had a staff member watch us wash our hands with soap and water it was staff perpetually cleaning banister's handrails all the kind of touch points that one would expect it was a very proactive approach to trying to stop something before it started [Music] [Music] many of the crew were frightened of the passengers who they regarded as a source of possible infection simple a on the 18th we arrived we arrived early morning to be surrounded by glaciers and icebergs and it was just absolutely it was gobsmackingly beautiful it was so pristine the color of the light i sound really like whacked but it was like nothing else i'd ever seen everybody was running around clicking away whether it was an iphone or a big slr they were videoing everybody was a wing inaudible we could just see these wonderful animals doing their thing in spite of us they weren't perturbed by us at all it was just beautiful [Music] one of my pictures was of a seal that was swimming just alongside the zodiac he popped up and looked at me and i got a close-up shot of him uh sort of saying hello who are you you're seeing things that are just gobsmacking so the mood was great it was always that feeling that we were the lucky ones everyone we knew back on planet earth was going into an increasingly meltdown situation but at that moment we felt that we were in this great little bubble of purity what happened to change all that i already started noticing more people coughing and sneezing in the talks and i was already going what if you know so i i repeated my hygiene talk but then on the afternoon of that day one of the passengers came up to me and said i'd like you to come and see my wife uh or my partner um she's got a fever it was you know it was high enough to be significant so i immediately went and told maurizio who was the ship's doctor and actually had the sort of legal medical responsibility for the whole boat and we went together this was like oh so close i mean i must admit what went through my mind was and so it starts jeff called me about one passenger reporting maybe fever the protocol was very clear we need to put all the isolation all the ship until we come to rule out if we have or not covet 19. we were informed in the morning that we were required to stay inside our cabins there was no talk that it was covered it was just somebody had shown a higher temperature reading but they said to take necessary precautions we're going to keep you all apart from each other and all services meals will be delivered to us [Music] we would go into full ppe and maurizio and i would then go and we'd divided up the different decks and we would work our way through we'd record all of the temperatures obviously looking for anyone spiking other fevers we had a couple of days where really it just seemed like maybe this is just one person one you know maybe this is just a one-off but because of that one fever already it meant that the falklands wasn't going to happen what happens now is that we change to plan c when we start heading off to montevideo so that's when we start getting more rolling fevers march 23 three patients with fever march 24 5 patients with fever in the moment that we did reach uruguay we had minimum 10 people with fever their new destination plan c was montevideo the capital of uruguay and the closest major port but at a time when cruise ships were being turned away from ports around the world no one was sure what kind of welcome they would receive there i was now wondering if we would be allowed to disembark with people with the temperature as head doctor mauricio usme found himself responsible for the health of more than 200 people on a ship that probably had a deadly virus on board but if he was expecting support from the ship's owners he was disappointed i wish to make it clear to you that if you do not provide me with the information i require and follow my direction you will never work for us again south african-born entrepreneur glenn heifer is also a registered doctor and was medical consultant to p o cruisers for 15 years haefer bought a stake in aurora when well-known mountaineer greg mortimer stepped back from the company he'd founded we approached glenn heifer and aurora for an interview but they declined i cannot understand why this person sent me this email in this very return and threatening me was i was very disappointed i was feeling that maybe i have not the support you know the support from the company dr izumaya is one of the best doctors i've ever worked with he was under enormous pressure he was really the man in the middle he was shouldering the entire responsibility and care of the ship as the ship sailed towards uruguay there was public outcry in sydney over passengers who'd been allowed to disembark from the ruby princess less than a week earlier 900 people would end up with covert 19 and 28 people died as a result dr uzmay thought it was his duty to include as much detail as possible on the health declaration for the uruguayan authorities [Music] dr uzmay said that those on board the greg mortimer had been quarantined and that covert 19 needed to be ruled out but glenn heifer was worried about whether they'd be allowed to disembark the risk we carry is public outcry and wolf's side workers refusing to allow the ship to birth and allow passengers to disembark please bear in mind that how you write the health declaration will influence the way that this is viewed we don't know we have covet 19 we are taking precautions as if we do give limited information truthfully [Music] in a recording made by dr uzma on the 23rd of march the ship's captain said he didn't believe the ship was in quarantine the ship is not under quarantine that is clear no the ship is on the quarantine no it's not yes no yes and i told to the capitan i never going to change the health declaration because the health declaration for uruguay is showing the real situation on board he's a very moral person he's got a very profound unshakable moral integrity and he kind of is almost a bit old school that he works out of medicine as a calling as a vocation rather than a job and that became clear as i worked with him you know i was very confused in this moment my feeling was i'm alone nobody's nobody is helping me here aurora expeditions disagrees with dr uzmay in response they said the highly selective leaking of communications may serve the frustrations and agendas of individual parties but does not reflect the facts so what happens as you approach uruguay are you able to dock in montevideo no not at all and in fact the whole of the rio de la plata was full of ships in our situation we were basically moored 20k off of montevideo so far everyone who was sick only had mild symptoms but dr greene was afraid of what would happen if that changed and they needed access to a hospital at that stage i was doing the maths if it was covered and we had a population of 200 people that could mean 20 to 40 people getting really sick given what was happening in hospitals in northern italy at the time you must have dreaded that possibility absolutely you know i'd already kind of followed and and heard from doctors and nurses working in that situation it was like a war zone you know and i i kind of at that stage didn't know if that wasn't going to be reproduced in our situation [Music] soon enough the doctors were confronted with their first seriously ill patient sydney physiotherapist carl sher a photo records the moment that dr usmei calls for help from the bridge it was our test case basically we approached the hospitals in uruguay in montevideo and then luckily the british hospital accepted this patient and within hours we were getting a coast guard out and the famous transfer of our first patient occurred [Music] carl sher was taken to the british hospital and intubated then at one o'clock in the morning i get a kind of repeated relentless knocking at my door and i get out of bed and i got a message from the captain by a crew member that i had to go and see maurizio so i went and saw him and he was spiking a horrendous fever i remember i have very a lot of body pain discomfort immediately i know that i have coronavirus also and i was in my cabin in isolation uh immediately that's mean dr jess was the doctor now with the responsibilities on board yeah i feel this huge weight now has landed on my shoulders not only in my last man standing but also it's clear that it's covered so i just really you know i mean that's like darkest hour stuff really the greg mortimer cruise ship was anchored off the coast of uruguay with 217 passengers and crew on board many of them australian some had symptoms of covert 19. around the same time the first passenger was being evacuated from the ship cabin maid angela gavilan also received bad news the passengers and crew both faced the same threat but they weren't really in it together it's a thing of beauty isn't it passengers could stave off cabin fever with exercise and imagination okay he thinks he's going to get it but it's not low on bowls danny remember that oh life was different downstairs natural [Music] a [Music] tell me what happened when rose got set yeah it was just another day in our confined cabin and rose had developed this slightly irritating cough that wouldn't go away i thought that i ought to let jeff green know the doctor yeah he examined rose listened to a chest and was sufficiently worried to put her on some oxygen because she had some of those comorbidity things we were still looking at people of risk and she was older and it just meant that things could go pear-shaped more quickly the next morning i went in to follow up and there were more signs of concern and at that stage i really felt more than anyone she needed to be evacuated they came down and dressed her in full ppe stuff as well and she was on oxygen an oxygen mask at that stage which helped her cough and i was reassured by that and so they got a wheelchair and popped her in the wheelchair and that's the last i saw of her she just disappeared rose padgett was the second passenger evacuated from the great mortimer she was also taken to the british hospital in montevideo [Music] a few days later graham got a phone call to say she'd been intubated it was just the beginning of the bad news he would receive from the hospital i still look back on that with dread because i can distinctly remember thinking to myself what what the hell do i do in this country where i don't speak a word of spanish and i get a message from icu that sorry we'd done our best but it it didn't work and she's passed away i if graham was going to see rose before it was too late he'd need a helping hand from uruguay i am dr carina rando i am the general director of coordination of the ministry of health we could not continue going one by one to pick up every sick patient we start to be worried because the boat was big there was a lot of people on board we need to do something bigger we arranged that we were going to go to the boat and check every patient and decide what to do after that watching people come on board the doctors in full ppe made me realize the actual severity of our situation it was actually quite shocking and quite spooky it was like oh my goodness and this is us they really believe we are infected all the passengers and crew were tested for coronavirus when the results came back they took everyone by surprise they said that at the moment there was 60 positive on the boat so this was like out of the ballpark i mean i thought that maybe like 20 percent [Music] so you're on this ship and you realize that you're in a a kind of covered incubator that you're actually on a floating petri dish really what did you think when you got the test results back well we think houston we have a problem [Music] infection continued to spread on the greg mortimer long after passengers were isolated in their the most likely cause was contaminated surfaces but passengers were at least able to relax in comfort and got regular updates via announcements over the ship's loudspeaker sick crew like housekeeper angela gavilan were in cramped rooms below deck pass filipino store keeper ronnie lorenzo reached out to his friends in isolation [Music] [Music] [Music] ronnie's condition soon worsened worrying his friends and his family at home in the philippines both of the ship's doctors colombian mauricio usme and kiwi jeff green were also sick i wasn't surprised i was positive but what it did change was that i was now no longer able to go out and see people i was actually a source of infection i wasn't a source of help anymore new doctors from uruguay had taken over the care of the passengers and crew on the ship are you telling your wife your children what is happening at this time in the moment that i was with shortness of breed was very difficult you know why because maybe the possible complication and die in an intensive care unit maybe no more opportunities to talk with my family was necessary for me tell them about my situation my family was very worried behind the scenes aurora expeditions and the australian government had been trying to find a solution uruguay agreed to act we have to do something these people cannot stay in that boat for longer there was a huge cooperation between uruguay and australian governments [Music] this was the news that passengers had been so eager to hear uruguay would let them disembark in order to catch a charter flight home on good friday on the evening you heard the anchor being pulled up and this amazing moment that we started sailing into montevideo so i didn't know what was going to happen and there were stories from other countries in south america where as people pulled in there were actually protesters you know lining the docks we prepare the buses we separate the drivers from the people we were very clear that they couldn't have all the luggage with them because we would not be able to be helping them with the luggage we're watching the buses all line up and there were an awful lot of ambulances and i was a bit perplexed i have to say as to why as i look out to my right i'm very close to the gangway a person in a wheelchair in full protective armor looks like a human mummy seated in this wheelchair is there and i thought oh my god what what's going on here what is really happening i didn't work out who it was until we actually got into quarantine in melbourne who was it it was my friend dr mauricio [Music] ronnie lorenzo and myself we were decent market first ambulance was 4b and second ambulance was for him because ronnie got inflammation like a pneumonia also dr uzmay who'd led the efforts to protect everyone on board was hospitalized along with storekeeper ronnie lorenzo both were fighting for their lives meanwhile the australians and new zealanders were escorted to the airport along a so-called sanitary corridor to prevent the spread of any infection in uruguay [Music] and then slowly this entire cavalcade which was about a kilometer long moved out of the protection of the dock and we started driving through the streets of montevideo and then people started saying they're cheering and the people of montevideo were lined up on the streets waving banners little children blowing kisses to people they've never met before you know we're sort of like in the worst possible way celebrities for all the wrong reasons but you couldn't help but feel the care compassion and concern by people we've never met for what we had gone through [Music] i think it touched everybody on the ship a lot of passengers didn't even know about uruguay or montevideo and when they had said that that's where we were going people had asked where is it well now it's on their bucket list of places they want to go to thank these people when there is a crisis there shouldn't be frontiers so i think that uruguay did what we should do is nothing marvelous it's just what people should do when something like this happen just being a good citizen yes what we is what we would like to do if if we were in the boat we would like somebody to take care of us on the plane it was clear that they'd also set it up as a hospital because there were some people who could have easily gone downhill very quickly [Music] it was the weirdest flight of my life touchdown in australia after a long international ordeal when we finally landed in melbourne there are helicopters hovering over from tv stations and you know we'd sort of become a news item the fleet of ambulances and buses greeting them more than a hundred passengers from the greg mortimer cruise ship are at last back home yeah felt good to be home their fellow passengers had left but australians rose padgett and karl scherr were in the icu at the british hospital in montevideo [Music] their partners who'd tested positive for covert were also at the hospital in isolation rose could have been a million miles away for all the contact i could have with it i was sort of stuck in this room i had a lovely window and i could see outside into the gardens and watch the birds i just must have felt so isolated oh totally yes graham was told rose had been placed in a coma and intubated then that her kidneys had failed and shortly after that she had a significant gastrointestinal bleed what was the worst time for you in in the hospital i find it hard to talk about but one sunday morning the doctor who had come in each day to give me rosa's progress came in and got me to deck up in full ppe and put me in a wheelchair and took me through to icu and i thought that was the end [Music] is that why they took you to see her yeah do you think yeah i'm quite sure that um [Music] they felt that i was i'd that to be able to see her before i saw her in the [Music] in the the undertaker's parlor in a box is [Music] and i couldn't say goodbye because there's a bloody window there and i couldn't touch her i couldn't [Music] most of the passengers had gone home but for the ship's crew the nightmare was far from over remember that the passengers be disembarked april 10 but all the crew members still on board and nobody told us nothing and no intention for this embark angela didn't even know that her friend ronnie lorenzo had been taken to hospital a contest at home in the philippines ronnie's anxious wife nana spoke to her husband in hospital [Music] [Music] [Music] the intensive care unit his bed was close to my bed i can see him for the window and i told him ronnie don't worry like you know everything is going to be fine [Music] dr mauricio usme got a hero's send-off when he was discharged from hospital he went straight back to the greg mortimer ronnie wasn't with him [Music] latina april 17 you know foreign the announcement from the capitan by the speakers was maybe 3 30 p.m was disaster nobody talked about maybe in 30 minutes people was crying [Music] [Music] foreign 52 year old ronnie lorenzo had been on the greg mortimer since its maiden voyage last year like so many of the crew his widow always thought their last trip was too risky me in the moment that ronnie died was the break point people was very sad people was disappointed from the company and also people was feeling that the next peep the next person with complication is everyone you know you know to the people was was feeling that ronnie today died but maybe tomorrow i gonna die also [Music] members of the crew also say they were given food that had expired and their access to the internet was restricted they were now more desperate than ever to get off the ship but cruise management international a miami-based company responsible for the crew and the ship's operation wanted them to sail to the canary islands when they were covered free with infections still spreading on board the crew were fearful of a second ill-fated voyage [Music] um [Music] in the end some of the crew decided to go public with their complaints actions very clear they told we want john from the ship i'm feeling like that i'm gonna die on board eventually with support from the public and sympathetic trade unions the crew's prayers were answered a month after the passengers had gone home uruguay agreed to let the crew disembark [Music] in the moment that we had the confirmation official confirmation everyone was very happy the stress was immediately cooled down people was happy calling the families everybody was feeling that we are safe you know we are safe we are safe because ashore is different than if you are alone in the ocean you know with so many international borders closed it would be many weeks before everyone was finally repatriated we approached cruise management international for comment but they turned down repeated interview requests [Music] the greg mortimer set sail for the canary islands with a skeleton crew where it awaits its next cruise in 2021 but more than two months after setting off on the holiday of a lifetime four australian passengers were still in hospital [Music] far from home [Music] the last australian passengers from the greg mortimer were still recovering from covert 19 in uruguay sydney physiotherapist karl scherr spent three weeks in icu but it was another six weeks before he was well enough to return home rose padgett eventually stepped back from the brink of death and slowly emerged from her long coma in total graham and rose spent almost three months in the british hospital it was a very very gradual process when i first was allowed round to see her in her icu room i had to gown and glove and mask and everything and she was basically comatose if i spoke her name she could just open her eyes and obviously recognized me with a bit of a smile there was a big send off from icu the whole staff gathering around rose's stretcher wishing us god speed when her condition had stabilized enough for her to travel her insurer provided a medically equipped private jet for the journey home can you see it what was it like when you touched down totally overwhelming i remember i could see out of my window fremantle port with boats coming in and out damn daniel for me was emotionally overwhelming i was able to shed tears on the tarmac of perth airport hello rose hi hi i'm good to see you after a six-month ordeal she's alive and if not well then at least improving rose is dealing with the long-term effects of covert 19 and is still piecing together what happened to her in uruguay i remember arriving in a little foyer at the front of the hospital going inside and i don't remember much after that to be perfectly honest and i've had to rely on graham my husband's so so much because he's my memory card i still sometimes feel as if i'm in a dream or a nightmare you know sometimes that certainly the worst is behind me i'm sure walk up to the bars and the cones a couple of weeks ago when she was starting her ability to stand up i was able to give her a hug and [Music] that was overwhelming as well because this was the first time since we'd been on the boat that i'd been able to give her a hug and i started crying then too [Music] several passengers and crew are still dealing with the lingering effects of covert 19. rosa's doctors don't yet know whether there's been any long-term damage to her kidneys how do you feel looking back on the decision to go ahead with the cruise a lot of my colleagues from denmark were very angry at that decision [Music] i am still grateful for the opportunity even though it was curtailed but for rose i think she will deserve some compensation how that will come about i don't know yet we haven't [Music] decided aurora expeditions has offered passengers a two-thirds refund or a ticket on any other cruise some have already signed up for a special trip next year which will embark from montevideo [Music] but anthony phillip doesn't feel ready to face another cruise you know i got unhealthy and i left retrospectively very damaged i felt my holiday my selfish desire as i rationalized it has now cost a gentleman his life this is a gentleman in his early 50s with a family how did this go so horribly wrong i can only say that they put profits before people it was a money making decision [Music] angela gavilan says she's also been scarred by her experience [Music] [Music] is in a statement aurora expeditions told dateline the decision to set sail was made following wide consultation and based on the information available to us at the time our number one priority has always been the health and well-being of our passengers staff and crew [Music] ronnie lorenzo became a grandfather while he was working on the greg mortimer indiana ronnie was the breadwinner for his extended family he was supporting a brother with leukemia and a son with special needs but what his family really misses is his kindness [Music] is [Music] [Music] back home in colombia where the pandemic has killed more than 27 000 people dr mauricio usme is putting his experience on the greg mortimer to good use [Music] working in a hospital icu for covert patients in medellin dr uzma seems strangely energized by his ordeal i always tell him to my patient my friend i was in the bed like you i can feel that you are feeling don't worry you're gonna be fine i'm so happy i'm so happy because god gave me the opportunity to feel in my body in my mind in my soul what's mean to be a patient with kovit and now i can to pay back pay back to the life the opportunity i'm so happy to work in in this unit i'm so happy [Music] you

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Length: 55min 55sec (3355 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 13 2020