Amazon CEO airlifted by Ecuador Navy after kidney stone attack

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Reuters

Amazon CEO airlifted by Ecuador Navy after kidney stone attack

Mark Weinraub and Alexandra Valencia

CHICAGO AND QUITO — Reuters

Published Saturday, Jan. 04 2014, 9:34 PM EST
Last updated Saturday, Jan. 04 2014, 9:40 PM EST

Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos was airlifted from a cruise ship by the Ecuadorean Navy after suffering a kidney stone attack in the Galapagos Islands on New Year’s Day.

“Galapagos: five stars. Kidney stones: zero stars,” Bezos said in an e-mail provided by Amazon in response to a Reuters request for comment.

Ecuador’s navy said Bezos was aboard a ship traveling between the islands of Floreana and Santa Cruz, both famed for their wildlife, when the attack struck in the mid-afternoon.

A navy helicopter met the ship at Santa Cruz and flew him about 20 miles (32 kilometres) to his private jet on nearby Baltra island. From there, Bezos was flown to the United States for “emergency surgery,” the navy said in a statement.


Read more: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/amazon-ceo-airlifted-by-ecuador-navy-after-kidney-stone-attack/article16195946/

[onehandle]

1. Being a Walmart of the Internet billionaire does have its perks. nt

Last edited Sun Jan 5, 2014, 12:06 AM - Edit history (1)

[yeoman6987]

7. What?

He will pay for it. For example, a friend of mine was on a cruise and had to be airlifted back to the states…..17,000 dollars later, she is fine. You could not possibly think it is free do you? Although if he had that medical insurance for 150.00 that you can get when you book a cruise (I do every time now after her experience) then you are right he is airlifted back free.

[MiniMe]

19. Of course he will pay for it

But the point that is being made imho is that he can afford to pay for it, unlike most of us peons.

[Kelvin Mace]

20. True, he will pay for it

but he can afford it. 90% of the rest of us would be driven to bankruptcy.

[roody]

2. Good thing he was not in the Amazon, or

we would have a bunch of DUzys.

[YOHABLO]

3. Why is this news? If I had a kidney stone nobody would give a damn.

[another_liberal]

18. His kidney stones must be raw diamonds.

At least one assumes so.

[Blue_Tires]

4. yeah, the wealthy truly do live on a different planet than the rest of us...

[jtuck004]

5. He should have just called for one of his drones... n/t

[1000words]

6. Fuck this guy

Unless there was severe bleeding, the man was in no great danger. Ship's doctor could have made him relatively comfortable until next port of call. But it was necessary to call the fucking Ecuadorean Navy?

[SoapBox]

8. I had two such episodes several years ago...

And let tell you, the pain is way over a 10...and as it's described, it's like childbirth...pain so bad when you can't pee AND you are vomiting at the same time. It was the ER both times and getting knocked out with morphine.

I don't like this guy but would not wish a severe attack on anyone (almost no one).

[1000words]

11. Don't I know it!

At one point, I was curled up in a ball, naked on the bathroom floor puking. The toilet mere inches away, but I couldn't straighten up. Only way I can even come close to describing the experience is: imagine being kicked in the balls repeatedly.

Doctor said I was chronically dehydrated. Since then, I make it a point to regularly drink water throughout the day.

[VWolf]

28. I'm with you

I once had an attack that was so bad I tried to knock myself out just to get relief. Didn't work, and I ended up damaging a wall in my house.

Kidney stones are godawful.

[haele]

12. Well, he could have had a urinary backup that could have f'd his kidney up big time.

or could have developed into a severe infection/toxic shock. Especially if he decided to gut it out for a couple days. A cruise ship is not the same as a hospital, and complications can ratchet up the danger quickly. The ship's doctor would have made the call, and it would not have mattered who it was. The safest thing would be to get him - or anyone else - off the ship as quickly as possible.
We only heard about this because it was the CEO of Amazon. Any other tourist would have been treated the same way. However, the average tourist would not have been whisked off to his or her private jet; they would have ended up in the nearest Ecuadorian hospital that would take foreigners.

This seems to be the week of "way back when" for me - we had to call in the El Salvadorian Navy to airlift one of our LTs who ruptured her appendix when we were on our way to the Panama Canal back in 1980.
We had a large crew, and were assigned a PA Warrant Officer with surgical training and had a fairly complete OR in our sick bay, so we could have stablilzed her for the two days it would have taken us to get to Balboa, Panama and the US Navy base there at the time, but the decision was that it would have been too much stress for her to continue underway with the particular AC system we had, the motion of the ocean and the limited amount of medical resources.

Haele

[dipsydoodle]

23. The backup you mentioned happened to my mother

when a small stone blocked the exit of her right kidney. So no - its not funny for the person affected.

I'm not sure how Ecuador stands on travel insurance requirements for tourists. The USA and UK have no requirements I'm aware of but Cuba for example has a mandatory requirement for travellers entering to have sufficient such insurance.

[Warpy]

14. Actually, it is an emergency situation

and letting somebody cool it for the three days or so it would take to get to a port with a good hospital could result in the loss of a kidney.

They kinda want to prevent that.

Plus, the pain is unbearable and there's only so much morphine can do.

[KoKo]

9. Ahhh...if only the rest of us could have Equadorean Navy Airlift us

from Cruise Ship in the Galapagos!

The POWER OF THE RICH AND FAMOUS....

Oh Well...

[hack89]

13. The US Coast Guard and Navy do this all the time. Nt

[penultimate]

16. I agree... Rich people should just suffer and lose kidneys when they get sick

I mean, so they don't offend others who have less money... Even if other people would get similar transport if they had a medical emergency (such as this kid who got a ride on an aircraft carrier http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3106135)

[civillawyer]

17. Good post.

I bit nauseating that folks would want to have a person suffer and risk their health to make some point. As for it being newsworthy, it's freakin Bezos. Sorry, that's going to make the news.

[rpannier]

22. Another example of 'it depends' that you're pissing on

Anything that happens is an 'It Depends' situation.
If we like the person, that person is on our side or he/she isn't offensive to a reader then the airlift is okay. So are bouts of over consumption of alcohol, rude and borish behavior toward others, etc

But if he/she isn't liked then 'It's the most outrageous thing since the (insert seriously awful historical event).'

[DeschutesRiver]

34. Thanks for posting that...absolutely spot on post. nt

[dipsydoodle]

24. Normal travel insurance covers such events.

UK limit on policies issued here is £10,000,000. That's £'s : not $'s.

Can't see even this airlift exceeding that.

[DeSwiss]

10. I see he added the ''Naval Option'' onto his Platinum coverage.

- Thanks Obama!

K&R

[longship]

15. Kidney Stones and I are old friends, so to speak.

I am one of those fortunate (???) individuals whose body makes those insidious things as a matter of "situation normal". So I have had numerous attacks throughout the years and have been hospitalized on multiple occasions, twice simply for pain control.

The trouble is that in spite of imaging advances those devils are difficult to find. The pain, although it's the worst one has ever experienced, is nearly impossible to localize. Your nerves reflect it everywhere, or no where. It really does feel like somebody's kicked you in the nuts, although that's not where the stone is.

And you pee blood. A little blood in the urine and you'd think you were bleeding out. A little goes a long way. And since it often takes a while to find the cussed things, you may have to go back again and again. They can't treat until they see them. And they hide.

You end up popping Vicodin or Oxycotin like candy -- I've tried both -- in order to function while you get diagnosed and the urologist locates the bugger. That can take weeks. I've been there twice. The other times I passed the stone with no medical intervention.

All told, six times in my 65 years. All very painful. Once with sonic wave lithotripsy (good! Easy Peasy!), once with LASER (bad, but better than the fucking stones). The difference is that lithotripsy is only indicated if the stones have not entered the ureter. (AFAIK)

Kidney stones are nothing to mess around with. And they are extremely painful.

on edit: and no, DeSwiss, dope does not help.

[benh57]

26. Researching how to prevent these things NOW :O

Thanks

[longship]

27. Do not supplement with vitamin C.

Avoid spinach or any other foods that would increase oxylate, if that's the type of stones you get.

That's my regimen. I still get them, but the last time was last summer and I successfully passed the stone with only moderate pain.

[winstars]

21. That's what I call AMAZON PRIME!!!! LOL nt

[Historic NY]

25. He has shit---. bricks coverage too...

with the rhodium plan.

[valerief]

29. You'd think a billionaire could afford the best kidneys in the world.

[jsr]

30. Amazon Employees Carried Out of 115-Degree Warehouse by Paramedics

http://techland.time.com/2011/09/21/amazon-employees-carried-out-of-115-degree-warehouse-by-paramedics/

Internet retail giant Amazon.com is facing outcry over the revelation that workers at one of its warehouses had to be carried out by paramedics this summer after working in a closed-door environment that reached 115 degrees.

The story was broken by the Morning Call newspaper, which interviewed 20 current and former employees of the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania warehouse and uncovered stunningly bad working conditions, with employees being escorted off the premises on a regular basis if they could not keep productivity at a certain level in the 100+ degree heat.

“Such sights encouraged some workers to conceal pain and push through injury lest they get fired as well,” the newspaper claimed, before going on to reveal that an ER doctor had contacted federal regulators in June to report the warehouse as an “unsafe environment” after treating multiple workers for heat exhaustion.

Yesterday, Amazon was forced to admit that although some warehouses around the country are air-conditioned, not all are—that includes the Lehigh Valley warehouse. “We haven’t historically had air conditioning in our east coast fulfillment centers,” the company explained to the Hollywood Reporter. “We’re in the process of adding air conditioning to additional FC’s so that we’re prepared in case what we saw this past summer becomes the new normal.”

[mike_c]

31. I had a "kidney stone attack" a couple of months ago....

I toughed it out and worked for nearly a week before going to the doctor, and then missed two days from work while recovering, mainly because of the pain meds. It must be nice to be so wealthy that national navies are at your beck and call when you have an ouch.

[Marrah_G]

36. And I had one that almost killed me

[nadinbrzezinski]

32. Law of the sea

Nothing to do with Bezos. Navies around the world do this regularly. Just ask the US coast Guard.

[mike_c]

37. is it normal to do a pan pan evac for something that isn't life threatening?

I mean, I'm assuming this went out as an urgent appeal for medical assistance. Or would this be called in as not urgent, but someone decided the 'copter pilots needed flight hours? I don't mean to make light of it-- I've had kidney stones-- but I do wonder whether the Coast Guard would organize an evac like this if *I* had a kidney stone on a cruise vessel?

[nadinbrzezinski]

38. Kidney stones *can be* life threatening

And they do evacuations regularly. We have had evacuations by the San Diego Unit for things like this. Hell, we have used US Navy Carriers for medical emergencies as well.

It is the law of the sea. This does not catch my attention beyond Bezos was involved. But under it the closest navy or even civilian ship with the capacity, should respond to the emergency call.

[mike_c]

39. thanks for the info....

Most of my experience with the international rules relate to small craft operating near the coast, where emergency evacs are not infrequent, but not usually on this scale.

[nadinbrzezinski]

40. Scale, one involved the USS Reagan

they evacuated a young girl to the Carrier for an emergency appendectomy. Now that is what I call impressive.

[brentspeak]

33. Now if he had a kidney stone attack while working at an Amazon warehouse

in a 110-degree tin facility, he'd be ushered out of the building by armed security with promise of a last paycheck mailed to his house.