ZEPHYRHILLS, Fla. — A Zephyrhills family returned home after going on a vacation that took every wrong turn.
Thirteen-year-old Hailey Combs had an emergency appendectomy in Turks and Caicos but is recovering nicely since returning home.
Stephanie Combs and her family decided to take a cruise over the Christmas holiday in the place of celebrating at home. The Carnival Cruise they were on departed Cape Canaveral on Dec. 23. The five-day cruise had stops in the Dominican and Turks and Caicos.
"We don't have passports. Because on a cruise ship, you can travel with just your birth certificates and your IDs, which is probably why we've been on past cruises," Stephanie said. "Travel Insurance, I always declined, because I always thought it was for just cancellations."
The family had saved for months to afford the trip. Stephanie said her first couple of mistakes were not having passports and travel insurance.
"In fact, if I would have just purchased that $150 to $100 insurance, she would have been flown back from Grand Turk directly to Tampa General," she said.
Instead, the family spent an additional $13,000 on their trip to cover the costs of a hospital stay, hotels and food.
When Hailey began to feel unwell, Stephanie was on an excursion and received a call from guest services about her daughter.
"She was completely different," she said. "Her skin was very pale. She was very clammy, and her eyes very looked like raccoons."
These were Hailey's first symptoms of appendicitis. Hailey had to receive emergency surgery in Grand Turk to remove her appendix.
"It was hard because not a lot of people spoke English very well," Stephanie said. "There was a lot of traveling nurses from all over the world. And then, the hospital is kind of outdated."
Stephanie and her husband stayed at the hospital with her daughter for one night, then stayed in a hotel for four nights.
Hailey said the situation was scary and she worried about just how much money her parents had to spend. The hotel the family stayed in, which was the only one they could find, ran them $200 per night.
Stephanie said the hospital charged them a daily fee and for the materials needed during her daughter's stay. In total, it cost them roughly $8,000 in medical expenses. She and her husband assured their daughter money didn't matter when it came to taking care of her.
Stephanie said her daughter "most likely would have died" if the family opted to let her symptoms go unchecked and stay on the boat as it headed back to Florida.
She also said she'll always splurge when booking travel.
"I am definitely applying for passports," Stephanie said. "I will always get the travel insurance now. No matter how much it costs extra. That's one expense. I will not ever skip on again."
The family was able to work with Carnival Cruises to board a ship to return to Florida after Hailey was discharged from the hospital in Turks and Caicos.
Hailey had a check-up appointment Monday. She said that she was healing nicely from her surgery.