TAMPA, Fla. — It's not the Christmas vacation one Zephyrhills family planned for.
Stephanie Combs told me her family has faced hardship in the last couple of years. That's why they decided to do Christmas differently this year.
"Around Easter time, I'm like, 'You know what, guys? We've been through a lot these last couple years. For Christmas, let's just forget about our worries. We'll save enough money and we can just do what we want and not even have to think about it," she said.
So the family booked a cruise, looking forward to exploring Turks and Caicos over Christmas weekend.
But nearly a week after the family left for the four-day cruise, Stephanie Combs explained over the phone to ABC Action News reporter Jada Williams how their ideal vacation quickly faded.
"Never would I have imagined that a perfectly healthy 13-year-old girl would have her appendix taken out in a foreign country," she said over the phone.
Just weeks before the cruise, the entire family caught a cold.
"Naturally, we thought, 'Oh no, we're not getting COVID.' You know, anything could happen. But no, we all took tests. Every single one of us in the house were sick. It just ended up being a couple of minor colds. A few days before we left, Haley wasn't sick, but she was having mild fevers," Combs explained.
Hailey's doctor prescribed a Z-Pack, later clearing the teenager to take the cruise with her family.
Once the family set sail, Stephanie says Hailey vomited but appeared to be fine. She figured her daughter had eaten too much ice cream on the cruise. Until she received a strange phone call the next day.
"I answered the phone, and then they said, 'Mrs. Combs, you need to come back to the ship. Your daughter's not looking so well.' And I'm like, Oh, there she goes, again, eating that ice cream," she said.
But by December 26th, Hailey was taken to a hospital in Grand Turk for an emergency appendectomy.
By Thursday, the teenager was still in the hospital recovering. Funds for the Combs running low as they figured out how to pay for the surgery and the hotel accommodations.
"We're down to like 80 bucks," she said.
The entire ordeal has taught the Combs family a valuable lesson.
"Lesson learned; I will never travel without insurance again," Combs said.
It's a lesson Daniel Durazo preaches often in his work as a Spokesperson for Allianz Travel Insurance.
"It's really important to buy travel insurance, especially whenever you're leaving the country," he said.
But why is it so important? Durazo says it can handle unforeseen costs that can even dictate when you go home.
"A lot of medical providers outside of the country will not let you leave until you settle up your bill. And typically, domestic health insurance or Medicare will not cover those costs. So, you want to have travel insurance so you can have the bill guaranteed and paid," he explained.
While most people think travel insurance is only good for covering transportation and last-minute cancelations, it can also cover medical needs.
"If you have to be medically evacuated, those can be very expensive. The ambulance rides start at $20,000 and go up from there. You don't want to have to pay for that yourself, and you also don't want to have to try and figure out the logistics for yourself."
As for the Combs family, they remain in Grand Turk until Hailey is cleared to go home.
But the other issue for the family is how they'll get home. The Combs used birth certificates to board the cruise. Carnival provided temporary passports. But those expire on December 31.
"If we're not out of here on the first, I don't know. I'm hoping that they can get us more passports. That's the second lesson learned; we'll all get passports."
The Combs have an expensive journey ahead of them. There's currently a GoFundMe set up to help the family out.
