Medical Crisis In Mexico, Part One

Ric Saborio woke to the smell of burning plastic. It was overwhelming. There he was, in a cabin on a cruise ship off the coast of Mexico and something was obviously very wrong.

He woke his wife, Gail. But she didn’t smell the burning plastic. Ric went into the hall outside their room and the smell was stronger. Something was clearly wrong on the ship. He went down a floor to Guest Services, but the people there couldn’t smell anything amiss either. Yet that burning plastic smell was so strong to Ric. 

He decided to get to the deck for some fresh air. But the burning plastic smell … it followed him. After a while on that deck, staying away from the railing, not wanting to fall over the side, he fell to his knees and asked for help.

Gail Saborio didn’t know what was wrong with her husband, only that they were getting off the boat to seek treatment. Maybe it was an allergic reaction. Maybe it was … she didn’t know what.

They were on a cruise with her parents, celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary, a trip that her parents had planned and saved for. Now they were going to a hospital in Cozumel, on an island in the Caribbean off the coast of Mexico. She kept her wits about her, but Ric … Ric … what was going on with Ric?

At the island hospital, they are very kind to the Saborios, but they make it clear, the Americans must return to the States. The cruise line, too, tells Gail they are not returning to the ship. Instead, she must charter a medical flight out of Cozumel. The people at the hospital tell her they think Ric’s had a stroke. He’s sedated.

Gail knows that leaving the ship means leaving their daughter, who’s only 12. She returns to the ship to collect their belongings, explain the situation to her parents, and say goodbye for a few days anyway to their daughter.

It isn’t easy. There are tears. Gail tells her daughter, “'You’ve got to be strong. It’s a test. It’s a test for Mommy too. I’ll see you on Sunday.' I gave her cash, I gave her kisses all over the face, and I left.”

Back at the hospital, Gail has to arrange for a medical flight out. She talks to a man named Zach in Texas who arranges everything and she puts the $20,000 cost on her credit card. Then she learns from someone at Blue Cross that flight won’t be covered, that she must go through the BC flight provider. She phones Zach, who is fine with the change and refunds the credit card.

But by now it’s early morning of July 4 and no one’s around in the U.S. to confirm Ric's insurance coverage, so Gail will have to charge the Blue Cross flight and get reimbursed later. Except her card is declined. It will take 24 hours to process the $20,000 refund.

She has to call Zach in Texas again. It's the middle of the night and he’s at home (amazingly, he'd given her his cell phone number). Gail tells him he’s got to return to his office and read off the charge cancellation number, as per instructions from the woman at Blue Cross. Gail’s desperate. She needs to be able to pay for the other flight. And, amazingly, Zach hears her.

“I’ll help you,” he says.

“It was so beautiful,” recalls Gail. “He drove back and got on a party line with the woman from Blue Cross. I blessed him for being an angel."

He goes into the office, 25 minutes from his house, in the middle of the night, and reads off the numbers to the woman at the credit card company and Gail's credit limit is restored.

Ric, meanwhile, is still sedated. He's still imagining things, but somehow he knows his wife is Super Gail and she will make sure things work out. There are hurdles yet to overcome, but Ric and Gail don't know about them yet.

Part Two of Ric and Gail Saborio's story will run Thursday morning on East Greenwich Patch.