More concerned with Liability than passenger needs

My husband & I are both experienced (over 40 cruises) cruisers.  Overall we enjoyed the cruise on Norwegian Dawn.  There were certainly areas for improvement, but we did not see any "showstoppers" until the final day.

My husband has Atrial Fib, an occasional fast heartbeat.  He is under the care of a specialist. We know what to do.  When this happens, he needs to sit down or if that does not work, lie down (feet above head) and that restores the heart to normal sinus rhythm.  If neither of those work, call the ambulance.  In the ~10 years since this was diagnosed, we called the ambulance once.

On departure day, we left our cabin and were in the public areas when my husband had an incident.  I immediately got him seated.  After 15-20 minutes the heart rate was still racing.  I found a crew member and told her we needed a bed for my husband to lie down.  She arranged for a wheelchair and my husband was taken to the medical center.  We did not ask to go to the medical center, I told them we did not need a Dr, just a bed.  I was told there were beds in the Medical Center.  When we got to the Medical Center, I again explained what was happening and that all we needed was a bed for him to lie down.  We were directed to a room -- it was dark, quiet, and had a bed. Perfect.  He lay down.  He color improved,  He lay quietly on the edge of sleeping for approximately 15-20 minutes.  It was all good.

A medical center person came by and was clearly surprised to see us there.  I explained what had happened.  She asked politely if we wanted to see a Dr.  I responded politely, no it was good.  My husband was getting what he needed:  laying down and resting.  She left. She was back a few minutes later, asked a few appropriate questions (are you dizzy? etc) and again asked:  "would you like to see a Dr?."  My husband said no, this is what I need,   

Then the wheels came off the cart. We were told, since my husband was refusing medical treatment, he needed to leave the medical center immediately.  It was a liability to the medical center to have him there.  No concern about his condition, no offer to find an alternate bed, no recognition that the ONLY thing he needed medically was being refused -- just leave.  I was outraged.  The woman left.  My husband assured me his heart rate was now under control and we could safely leave.  Otherwise we would not have risked his health and would have agreed to the totally-unnecessary Dr review.  We prepared to leave.  

Then the woman came back with a form I could sign -- a waiver of liability. She explained if I signed it, he could stay.  I would have PREFERRED to give my husband another 15-20 minutes of rest so I read it.  It stated we were leaving the medical facility against Drs orders and they would not be liable.  I explained this waiver of liability form was not appropriate to the situation. We were not leaving against Dr orders, we had not seen a Dr.  We were leaving because she TOLD us to leave because we REFUSED to see the Dr.  And in any case, the form essentially said we had to leave.    

So we left. Without the aid of the wheel chair which was now magically gone. Tacky, really tacky.

I complained to the cruise line customer service desk AND wrote a letter to the cruise line.  To date, I have not had a satisfactory response.

Medical care is a critical service that we all hope we NEVER need to use.  However, if I do need to use it I would like to have confidence that the medical staff is at LEAST as concerned about what the patient needs as they are about liability.  Not on the Norwegian Dawn apparently.