While planning our three year, sailing adventure on a fifty foot catamaran, my husband Scott and I felt we had all our bases covered: boat-check, home schooling-check, route-check, provisioning-check, electronics-check, but, unfortunately, when it came to our medical care solution there was a big, fat hole. This made me, a mother of three very active boys ages 5, 9, and 11, not to mention being married to an extremely injury prone husband, incredibly nervous; nervous to the point of rethinking our entire plan. Was fulfilling our dream of sailing the world for three years worth putting our family’s wellbeing in jeopardy?

Then, in walks MedAire. While frantically searching the net last winter for some sort of solution we stumbled across MedAire’s website. It seemed too good to be true. Not only do they provide the medical kits needed for a trip such as ours, but training to go along with it. The best part, doctors are ready to assist anywhere, at any time via satellite phone to MedAire’s 7/24 call center, MedLink. An added bonus, they keep all of our medical as well as important travel information, copies of passports, birth certificates, in their database for easy access. This will allow us an extra layer of security as we travel between different countries.

On July 28th, a day after our family arrived in Ft Lauderdale to start outfitting our boat with the final necessities for the voyage, Scott and I began a three-day intensive training session that ended in an additional half day of training with our three boys. Renee Kempf, our instructor, began with a general overview of what we were to expect during the next few days. Then, we moved to an overview of basic anatomy and a description of the major systems of our bodies. Even my EMT husband admitted he learned a lot. Renee was patient and is obviously an extremely knowledgeable as well as a gifted trainer. We went over CPR and acted out real life scenarios such as, Scott is unconscious on the front deck so what should we do? While one of the boys raises MedLink on the satellite phone for assistance, I check to see if he is breathing and then administer CPR. No pulse? Then maybe we need the defibrillator. He regains consciousness, then it would help to administer oxygen, and so on. We covered inserting IVs, suturing (pigs feet, darn I didn’t get to practice on Scott), burn treatment, fevers, food poisoning, bites and stings from dangerous and not so dangerous animals, breaks, sprains, spinal injuries, tourniquets, rashes, and much more. All of this training comes with the knowledge that we will have doctors and experts available to us 24/7 for advice and guidance.

The boys’ favorite part of training was practicing abdominal thrusts used to aid choking victims. Renee had a contraption for training that would propel Nerf like bullets into the air when you accomplished the procedure correctly. Lots of fun! They asked if they could keep the training tool

After three and a half days of Renee’s guidance, a peace of mind and a feeling of empowerment came upon me to which there is no comparison. We can do this trip and be safe. I can take care of my husband and kids in an emergency if necessary. We can do this and have experts behind us the whole way. Phew… Thanks Renee and thanks MedAire. I hope I never have to talk with you in the next three years, (well Renee, only if it is to visit for fun) but, if I do, I feel certain we will have the tools, and the expertise of the MedAire staff behind us, to help guide us through any challenge. Boy voyage!