by Scott Leonard with Zoe Alexander
It’s time for me to address one of the most frequent questions I’ve gotten so far:
“How did you convince Mandi to sail around the world with your three boys?”
Actually, Mandi was onboard with the plan from the beginning. But she did have one essential requirement- that we get prepared for any medical situation. Requiring medical care at sea was also one of my main concerns. With all the hype about pirates and storms, there is real danger in facing a medical issue in a remote location. Even a minor issue can develop into something major without proper diagnosis or timely treatment.
As our departure date grew closer, the medical question remained unsolved. We thought about taking EMT courses or adventure care cours
es, but nothing really seemed to meet our specific needs. We were fortunate to find MedAire, which provides medical kits and training, and MedLink which is the 24/7 telemedician service provided through MedAire (they were quick to help us solve our lice dilemma in Puerto Rico as you may recall). Then we discovered the final- and most crucial- piece to the puzzle, our Tempus IC unit.
The Tempus IC is our own personal vitals monitoring system. The live data provided to the physicians at the MedLink location is the same information determined in an ER setting: heart rate, blood O2 level, temperature, pulse, glucose level, blood pressure and even a 12 lead EKG monitor. The unit is amazing; it takes photos and video and transmits the images to MedLink, so it’s like having a doctor on board. After we learned about it, we knew we needed it in order to have that last bit of confidence in making the trip.
Best of all – the monitoring is automatic so it’s very simple to use; both Griffin and Jake can operate it. In fact, we anticipate that we will be in communication with the doctors at MedLink via our Tempus unit more than
we ever visited the doctor back home. The unit communicates directly with MedLink via our satellite connection, or my cell phone or WiFi network. I push one button and I’m talking to a health care professional. Awesome.
Tempus IC has become part of the family. We conduct routine drills using it so we all know how to test everyone’s vitals. To make it more fun for the boys, we’ve tried using it as a “lie detector.” Not only does this keep the boys interested, it teaches them about anatomy and how to monitor different vital signs in each other. The game of trying to catch their brothers in a lie helps to ensure that they place the different monitors in the correct place.
And MedLink has encouraged us to call often, even if it’s only about a scratch or the sniffles, just so we can stay ahead of the curve. In some ways, Mandi and I are actually more confident about caring for the boys with this system in place than we were in our home where we often practiced the “wait and see” approach. Once again, advances in technology have allowed me to be truly mobile with my family.
