When I worked in Brazil and Colombia and other Latin American countries my friends would come visit and they would go to the pharmacies and buy thousands of Xanax etc. and bring back in their luggage it was risky but you could always get a doctors prescription down there for like 100 bucks to come back home and sell those things for five dollars apiece
I had cargo ships backed up and I would go to the local pharmacy with my list and they would sell me everything and I mean everything like even a big wooden case of morphine serattes
Funny thing though whenever I would check the infirmary whenever I was in Port with the ship there were always be a few of those missing stranger that happens lol
They were they were really like pieces of art the boxes were very nice and everything laid out perfectly with a nice felt background like I forget pretty substantial dose of morphine each ampoule kind of a golden elixir and you just stuck at the muscle and cracked it a couple of those would cure about any pain
Of course we have everything from penicillin injections to muscle relaxer sedatives everything antibiotics it was a well-stocked infirmary because if you’re at save for five or six weeks crossing the Pond do you have to have something for an emergency the worst usually being electrocution or someone falling into the cargo hold which was like 40 feet deep onto steel tank tops or people getting hit in the head
At sea way out of helicopter range is a whole different world.
Modern EPIRBS are direct to Sat, and they are registered to your boat, so your next of kin can get a fast call. This helps the USCG a lot, as in knowing if you are a sailboat going 6 knots on the expected course, it’s probably a medical accident. If it’s 1 knot drifting off course, maybe a life raft situation.
Even 25 years ago, your EPIRB needed to be heard by a passing plane....lots of sailors go far away from where the jets fly.
But way out of helicopter range, far from the USCG cutters, you are ON YOUR OWN. Live or die.
Accidental food poisoning is another issue. You can blow up an intestine and get peritonitis....very ugly....very painful. Can kill you.