Sue Burgess began to feel sick on a Southwest flight from Phoenix to Albuquerque. After a rough trip in which she filled several barf bags, Southwest sent her to a hospital after the plane landed. It turns out she had the stomach flu — but there’s the small matter of a $9,000 hospital bill. She wants to know who is going to pay this bill.
STOMACH FLU
This is a sick way to spend your vacation
What’s worse than being stricken with stomach flu on vacation? Maybe it’s being quarantined on a cruise ship with hundreds of other passengers suffering from the same illness.
That’s what happened to Randy Fulp when he sailed to Mexico with a group of friends on the Caribbean Princess in January. An appraiser from Sacramento, Fulp is a seasoned cruiser and knows the risk of getting sick, particularly at this time of year. Cruise ships are on high alert for sightings of the Norwalk virus, also known as the norovirus or stomach flu, a highly contagious gastrointestinal illness.
Still, on the third day of their vacation, Fulp’s wife, Peggy, became violently ill. “She started vomiting and having diarrhea,” he says. “It was uncontrollable.”