Cruise ship fall left Virginia woman fearing ‘she was going to die’ in foreign hospital, daughter says

After taking a fall on a cruise ship and sustaining fractures to her hip and elbow, a 64-year-old Virginia woman spent nine days “stranded” in an Indonesian hospital whose staff admitted it was unequipped to treat her injuries, her daughter said.

Carnival Cruise staff aboard the Luminosa determined that Denise Hammond would need surgical intervention beyond its capacity after taking X-rays onboard Oct. 4, her daughter, Rachel Matthews, told Fox News Digital. 

Four days later, Hammond was transported to the Siloam Hospital in Manado.

There, her daughter said, it became apparent her nightmare was far from over. 

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Initially, Matthews said, her family was disappointed Hammond’s long-awaited cruise was cut short. The month-long Carnival cruise began in Seattle and was scheduled to stop at “a bunch of ports in Asia and the Pacific,” eventually ending in Australia. 

Thus far, Matthews said, her mother had visited six ports in Japan, and the ship was on its way to Indonesia when she fell. 

“I mean, it’s been terrifying. When she first fell, at first we were just like, ‘Oh, man, that’s awful.’ But we didn’t ever think she’d have trouble getting the medical care that she needs,” Matthews lamented. 

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Although Hammond was given a solo “VIP room” at the hospital, Matthews said, “the hospital conditions were just really atrocious in terms of cleanliness … nothing you’d expect from a hospital room in America or other parts of the world.” 

There, a doctor told her the hospital didn’t have the equipment to treat her fractured bones. The medical professional “yanked” on Hammond’s arm, her daughter claimed, and “tried to get her to walk on the leg.” 

“They weren’t doing any scans or blood tests, giving any kind of anticoagulants. … We were concerned she was going to die in that hospital,” Matthews said. “Every time I talked to her, she was terrified. She said she felt alone, abandoned. She was afraid she was going to die [there] and never get out. It was just really scary.” 

Siloam Hospital could not immediately be reached for comment.

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Although Hammond frequently goes on cruises and always buys travel insurance, Matthews said, she began hitting dead ends in her efforts to get a medical evacuation.

The family began working with the U.S. embassy, which began linking them with transport companies to haul Hammond to the nearest hospital that could treat her. The closest such center, the family was told, was nearly 4,000 miles away in Bangkok, Thailand. 

The first transport company charged $60,000 to get Hammond there, Matthews said, while the hospital needed a $40,000 down payment before she arrived. Neither payment covered Hammond’s entire procedure.

“We were so desperate to get her out of there, and the insurance company wasn’t helping,” Matthews said.

Orthopedic surgeons who had worked with 64-year-old Hammond before in Virginia helped the family draft letters to their insurance company, which the family declined to name, citing their ongoing negotiation, urging it to expedite assistance. 

A Virginia congressman even sent a letter to the company on Hammond’s behalf, urging it to assist the injured woman, Matthews said.

“She’s looking at much more intensive surgery than she would nine days ago if she had gotten surgery when she should have,” Matthews said. “Those injuries are healing back incorrectly.”

As of Wednesday, after national news caught wind of Hammond’s story, her insurance company is assisting with transportation costs. But her family expects her medical expenses to exceed her insurance cap and must contend with costs incurred transporting her luggage back to the U.S., data charges and “just all those additional costs associated with being stranded in a foreign country,” Matthews said.

On Friday, Hammond arrived at Samitivej Srinakarin Hospital for her initial evaluation, Matthews said. 

“My mom’s body has faced incredible stress and life-threatening danger due to this long and unacceptable delay in medical treatment,” Matthews wrote in an update on the family’s GoFundMe page, which had raised nearly $30,000 as of Friday afternoon. “We won’t know until she is further evaluated what kind of increased damage has been caused by this negligence, and how it will affect her quality of life in the long-term. Please pray that this damage is minimal.”

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Carnival, whose press office could not be immediately reached, told USA Today it has been in regular contact with Hammond and her family and is “pleased” she is nearing her return trip home. 

Matthews said Hammond is “not sure if she’ll continue to travel like she has before.”