ORLANDO, Fla. — An Orlando family is back on U.S. soil after their vacation turned into a nightmare. Their son developed sepsis while on board a cruise ship.
The Mejias family departed Port Canaveral for Mexico last Friday. Their son had cut his eyelid on a toy car the day before, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
“I cleaned it up, he had Neosporin, it looked like any normal cut,” said Nicole Mejias, Roman Mejias’s mom.
Things started to take a turn for the worst the day after departure when Roman developed sepsis.
“I noticed his eyelid was like five times the size of regular,” said Nicole.
A visit to the hospital in Mexico was out of the question because the Mejias family didn’t have passports. The cruise they were on did not require them.
So with her son’s health at the forefront of her mind, she contacted the U.S. Consulate.
“They said don’t you get off that boat because you will not be allowed back into the United States,” said Nicole.
So instead, they spent the majority of their vacation in the cruise ship’s infirmary. But all those days under medical care on board the Norwegian Sun racked up a hefty bill.
“It was $13,200, close to $14,000,” said Nicole.
A bill Nicole says had to be paid before they got off the ship. That’s when people from all over the country got word of their stress and rallied together, raising thousands of dollars for the Mejias family.
“We paid $6,000. We don’t have full access to the Facebook funds yet,” said Nicole.
Nicole says Norwegian Cruise Line did let them off the ship this morning, on the condition the Mejias family pays the bill in full within 10 days.
As far as Roman’s condition, an Orlando hospital is monitoring him with hopes the infection didn’t travel to his brain.
“He’s a little more alert, he’s playing with his toys, he’s still sleeping a lot more than normal,” said Nicole.
We reached out to Norwegian Cruise Line for comment and haven’t heard back.
This article was written by McKenna King for WFTS .
