[bdcravens]

Probably no different than if a younger traveler was injured and needing medical attention: they'd triage it onboard, and provide emergency care at the next port-of-call if needed. Worst case scenario, helicopter ride to a major hospital.

[brotchie]

Any idea what level of medical care they can provision on-ship? I'd presume they have morgue facilities, given the negatively skewed age distribution, but no operating theatre?

[oostevo]

I had a small injury -- just a broken bone in my hand -- on a cruise ship about ten years ago.

There was a doctor and two nurses on duty at the time. The doctor had to be quite resourceful: he checked my vitals, took, developed, and interpreted the x-ray, and then set the broken bone. I gather the doctor(s) onboard also wind up serving as the primary care physician for all of the staff on board, too.

The facilities themselves were quite sparse, and with somewhat dated but still functional equipment. The x-ray used film, after all. He also wound up using a spoon from the dining room as a splint, because the ship didn't seem to stock small splints.

My understanding is that shipboard medicine has advanced considerably since then. Some cursory Googling suggested that ships are routinely equipped with satellite connections to doctors on shore, ecgs, defibrillators, and the like.

[cdjk]

My mom got appendicitis on a cruise ship while it was about three days from port. They have lots of antibiotics, but surgery on board was never an option, although she was immediately transferred to an ER when they got into port.

In other cases passengers have been airlifted either to shore, or in one case a navy aircraft carrier, which is equipped to do surgery. That implies that reasonably advanced medical care is available ona ship, even if cruise ships are not setup to offer it. I'd link to the article, but I'm on a tablet and it's easy to find.

[rdl]

They're obviously focused on emergency medicine and cardiac care. Digital radiography, EKGs, external pacemakers, a lab, etc. They can do cricothyrotomy, but certainly aren't set up for major surgery. Basically anything you'd want in an ER but not OR.

Although there are some ships doing cosmetic surgery at sea, and there are proposals for cruise ship medical tourism.

[justincormack]

And there was a ship moored off Ireland performing abortions at one point.

[Someone]

That, in at least one case (and, AFAIK, all cases) wasn't commercial, but ideological: http://www.womenonwaves.org/en/page/769/in-collection/2582/i...

Also, I would not call that surgery.

[rdl]

Better example is something like the USNS Comfort and USNS Mercy (or really any big surface combatant in the USN); they can do real surgery.

I'd argue that Comfort and Mercy could do more good for US national security at sea, combined with LPD/LPH for cargo transport and personnel, than any other surface ships in the US fleet -- humanitarian missions probably improve security more than anything but the submarine nuclear deterrent.