Cruise ship nightmare: Family shocked by one parent’s COVID-19 death must care for another
Coronavirus takes life of South San Francisco man, family in mourning also trying to get mother care
By the time a cruise ship carrying South San Francisco resident Wilson Maa reached Florida, it may have been too late.Maa, 71, had left nearly a month earlier on a South American voyage aboard the Coral Princess with his wife, Toyling. The trip was supposed to end after about three weeks. But as the COVID-19 pandemic spread, normal operations were curtailed, and the ship wasn’t able to offload passengers in Buenos Aires, as originally planned, for their flights home.
The captain had decided to sail for Florida, hoping that he’d be able to get help for his passengers. By Saturday night, Wilson Maa was in serious condition and was taken to a local hospital.
He died five minutes before midnight.
On Sunday, as his family struggled to absorb news of the death, they had another urgent task before them: Helping Toyling Maa, who might herself be sick with the virus, get needed care and eventually make her way across a largely shuttered nation to her home.
The situation over the past week highlighted yet again how the quick-spreading COVID-19 virus has led to chaos on cruise ships and struck a brutal blow into the hearts and lives of people around the world.
“After the horror we’ve gone through with Wilson we can’t see that happen again,” Jason Chien, the Maas’ son-in-law, said Sunday, hours before Toyling Maa, 64 was scheduled to be taken to a staging facility to be evaluated.
Such a nightmare scenario was not a consideration when the Maas left on Feb. 29 to spend a week touring Machu Picchu. Chien said that visiting the famous Inca citadel in Peru had been one of Wilson Maa’s “bucket-list items.”
The Maas and three other couples who were lifelong friends boarded the Coral Princess on March 5 in Chile for a two-week cruise around South America. The voyage had been scheduled to end March 19 in Buenos Aires after navigating Cape Horn at the southern end of Tierra del Fuego.
On Sunday, as his family struggled to absorb news of the death, they had another urgent task before them: Helping Toyling Maa, who might herself be sick with the virus, get needed care and eventually make her way across a largely shuttered nation to her home.
The situation over the past week highlighted yet again how the quick-spreading COVID-19 virus has led to chaos on cruise ships and struck a brutal blow into the hearts and lives of people around the world.
“After the horror we’ve gone through with Wilson we can’t see that happen again,” Jason Chien, the Maas’ son-in-law, said Sunday, hours before Toyling Maa, 64 was scheduled to be taken to a staging facility to be evaluated.
Such a nightmare scenario was not a consideration when the Maas left on Feb. 29 to spend a week touring Machu Picchu. Chien said that visiting the famous Inca citadel in Peru had been one of Wilson Maa’s “bucket-list items.”
The Maas and three other couples who were lifelong friends boarded the Coral Princess on March 5 in Chile for a two-week cruise around South America. The voyage had been scheduled to end March 19 in Buenos Aires after navigating Cape Horn at the southern end of Tierra del Fuego.
But by the time the ship arrived in Argentina, its 1,020 passengers and 878 crew members were greeted by a different world. Many South American countries had closed their borders because of the exploding contagion. Passengers were not permitted to disembark and those who had flights home from Buenos Aires were unable to make them, Chien said.
Without many options, the ship’s captain decided to sail to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Princess Cruise officials said.
The situation over the past week highlighted yet again how the quick-spreading COVID-19 virus has led to chaos on cruise ships and struck a brutal blow into the hearts and lives of people around the world.
“After the horror we’ve gone through with Wilson we can’t see that happen again,” Jason Chien, the Maas’ son-in-law, said Sunday, hours before Toyling Maa, 64 was scheduled to be taken to a staging facility to be evaluated.
Such a nightmare scenario was not a consideration when the Maas left on Feb. 29 to spend a week touring Machu Picchu. Chien said that visiting the famous Inca citadel in Peru had been one of Wilson Maa’s “bucket-list items.”
The Maas and three other couples who were lifelong friends boarded the Coral Princess on March 5 in Chile for a two-week cruise around South America. The voyage had been scheduled to end March 19 in Buenos Aires after navigating Cape Horn at the southern end of Tierra del Fuego.
But by the time the ship arrived in Argentina, its 1,020 passengers and 878 crew members were greeted by a different world. Many South American countries had closed their borders because of the exploding contagion. Passengers were not permitted to disembark and those who had flights home from Buenos Aires were unable to make them, Chien said.
Without many options, the ship’s captain decided to sail to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Princess Cruise officials said.
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