Videos and rumors have taken the internet by storm since June 29 when a father jumped overboard from his Disney Cruise after his child.
The incident — which happened as the ship was returning from the Bahamas to Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale — has been covered by hundreds of news outlets and has been shared and liked thousands of times over online, but the public has continued to wrack their brains — how did this happen?
The girl, 5, was sitting on a railing on a fourth-floor deck around 11:30 a.m. while her parents played shuffleboard, authorities have since said. The child allegedly slipped backwards through a porthole and plummeted to the ocean below.
The girl’s father, 37, dove into the water after her. The two treaded water for about 20 minutes before rescue crews could reach them.
Her father, who has been hailed as a hero by hundreds of news outlets covering the story, was taken to the hospital, according to reporting from NBC 6 South Florida.
Additional information, including whether the father was released from the hospital and the names of the pair, have not been released. It is still unclear why the porthole was open or how the child slipped into it on the day of her fall.
Leesfield & Partners
“This family is so blessed,” officials with the Broward County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement to the New York Post. “It’s great to be able to respond to good news rather than what could have been a tragic outcome.”
Thankfully, both father and child in this case are alright. Leesfield & Partners, a personal injury law firm with decades of experience representing cruise passengers, echoes the sentiments of BSO officials. The outcome for this family is nothing short of incredible. With nearly five decades of personal injury trial experience, our attorneys know that some families are not as lucky.
One tragic case handled by the firm involves the death of a young girl who got separated from her family while on a cruise ship. As the child leaned over a faulty interior railing on the ship, it gave way, and she fell several stories to her death.
Leesfield & Partners attorneys worked diligently to secure a confidential settlement on behalf of the grieving family and hold the cruise line accountable.
As common carriers, cruise lines owe a heightened duty of care to ensure the safety and well-being of their passengers. This duty encompasses maintaining hazard-free decks, promptly repairing loose railings and ensuring that excursion transportation, like buses, are safe and properly maintained.
Additionally, cruise lines are obligated to provide adequate medical care while at sea and to recognize when a passenger’s condition requires emergency evacuation. Similarly, they must take reasonable measures to protect passengers from criminal acts, whether committed by fellow passengers or crew members.
And these duties do not end when passengers embark on shore excursions. Partner Justin B. Shapiro is representing a client injured in a jet ski excursion incident where a cruise ship tour guide negligently collided with her from behind, resulting in severe and painful spinal fractures.
That case is ongoing.
Previous Cases
Leesfield & Partners previously represented a Canadian woman who was traveling on a cruise ship when she was horrifically raped. The woman was in her cabin alone when a member of the ship’s crew abused his employee status and used a keycard to access the woman’s room where he attacked her.
The firm secured a multi-million-dollar amount for the woman in that case.
The firm recovered $2.5 million for a 9-year-old who collided with an unpadded steel grommet while diving for an out-of-bounds ball as he played on a ship’s basketball court. The child in that case suffered a catastrophic brain injury as a result on the traumatic incident.
Similarly, the firm represented a man, 62, who was injured while playing pickleball aboard his cruise ship. The firm settled the case for $500,000.
Mr. Shapiro and Trial Attorney Evan Robinson secured a confidential amount for a woman who was injured after an onboard fall. In that case, the woman slipped on water that was not cleaned up by crew in a timely manner. As a result, the woman fractured her right femur and fractured one of the bones in her lumbar spine.
Bernardo Pimentel II, a Trial Attorney at the firm, is representing a woman who suffers extreme trauma and emotional turmoil after it was revealed she was one among numerous passengers, including children, whose privacy was violated when a crew member planted hidden cameras in their cabins. That crew member was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for producing child sex abuse material.
Mr. Pimentel is also representing another woman in a case involving an injury she suffered while coming back to her cruise. The woman was returning from a shore excursion when she tripped and fell on an uneven bridge, seriously injured her left ankle, knee, arm and elbow. She was able to walk back to the tender boat where she informed the crew she would need to see the ship’s physician.
No action was taken to ensure that medical personnel would be there to meet her when she arrived. She disembarked without assistance and, while walking up the gangway, paused to gather herself while in extreme pain. She told the crew she needed immediate medical attention. The crew, again, failed to provide a wheelchair or another means of transport to the infirmary. While still on the gangway, crew members approached our client and grabbed her arm. She fell to the floor in agony and was finally given a wheelchair and taken to the infirmary.
While there, she was diagnosed with multiple fractures to her hip and shoulder. Hours later, she was transferred to a remote hospital in Brazil and was left to wait a full week with insufficient medical care before she could be transported to a larger city and then to the U.S. for a full hip replacement.
She spent weeks recovering at a hospital in Florida before she was able to return to her home in another state.