Cruise Ship Lawyers Blog
A video of a Royal Caribbean Icon of the Seas passenger leaning over the edge of an infinity pool before falling onto the pool’s guttering below has gone viral online.
The harrowing moment shows a swimmer leaning their entire torso over the infinity pool’s railing before toppling over it entirely after losing their balance. Gasps and the horrified screams of onlookers can be heard in the background.
Thankfully, the passenger did not fall over the gutter. If they had, they would have fallen several stories into a children’s swimming area on a lower deck, according to Newsweek. No injuries were reported in this incident.
In over five decades of personal injury practice, Leesfield & Partners attorneys understand that this situation could had a very different ending.
Leesfield & Partners
Leesfield & Partners is a Florida-based law firm with offices in Key West, Orlando and Miami — the home port of the Icon of the Seas, the ship where this incident took place. With offices just a short distance from Port Miami, which has regularly been dubbed the “cruising capital of the world,” our attorneys have seen just about every injury that can occur on a cruise ship. From medical negligence at the hands of inept cruise ship doctors to excursion accidents and onboard injuries, our skilled trial attorneys work diligently to secure the best possible outcome for every client.
In a previous Leesfield & Partners case that is similar to the incident mentioned above, our attorneys secured a confidential settlement for a family grieving the loss of their child. In this case, our client’s young daughter was separated from her family while aboard a cruise ship. When the child approached an inadequately installed and badly maintained interior railing and leaned on it to peer over it, she fell several stories to her death.
This devastating incident is one no family should ever have to endure. At Leesfield & Partners, our attorneys work tirelessly to help prevent such tragedies — and when they do occur, we are committed to holding the responsible parties fully accountable for their negligence.
Previous Onboard Injuries
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.
Previous Cruise Ship Medical Malpractice Cases
A Leesfield & Partners client and crew member experienced the consequences of negligent medical care aboard ships when he went to his ship’s infirmary for symptoms of nausea. What should have been a simple enough ailment to treat resulted in this man losing an arm due to the negligence of the medical staff aboard the ship. To combat his symptoms, he was given via IV a medication with a black box warning label clearly stating that the medication should be injected deep into the muscle slowly over a few minutes. Instead, a member of the medical staff injected it rapidly into our client’s IV. He was in immediate agony.
This was the beginning of an excruciating, hours-long ordeal in which his arm became necrotic and his skin blackened. While the tissue on his arm continued to slowly die, cruise ship doctors searched online for ways to help. Eventually, he was able to seek medical attention on shore where doctors attempted to save his arm. Tragically, they could not.
In the end, our client lost his right arm due to the errors of the doctors aboard the cruise ship. Our client was awarded over $3.3 million in arbitration thanks to the work of attorneys at Leesfield & Partners.
In another tragic amputation case, a 9-month-old baby’s meningococcal meningitis was misdiagnosed by a stomach bug. As a result of this error, the infant underwent multiple amputations. Leesfield & Partners secured an over $5.5 million award for the family in that case.
A retired nurse who suffered a horrific accident aboard a ship required a life-saving blood transfusion. As the result of cruise medical staff negligently failing to test the blood they administered to the woman, she was diagnosed with HIV. The firm settled the case for $4.25 million.
In addition to errors made while treating patients, Leesfield & Partners has seen doctors delay or deny evacuations for patients who were in the middle of medical emergencies. These delays can occur for a myriad of reasons, however, for our clients, these decisions were made to protect the ship’s schedule and bottom line. As a result, medical situations were exacerbated, leading to further injury and death.
One family who was represented by Leesfield & Partners went on a cruise to mark a milestone anniversary. Instead of a fun-filled family vacation, our clients suffered a tremendous loss that began with their patriarch suffering a heart attack while the ship was still in port. He was denied evacuation and the ship left for its destination, and he later died.
The firm secured a multi-million-dollar recovery in that case.
A teenager who suffered a stroke on a ship was written off for her age, despite the obvious symptoms. The case was later settled for $3 million.
In another case, the firm secured $1.5 million for a person having a stroke while on a cruise ship.
Previous Excursion Cases
Previously, Leesfield & Partners represented a family after a mother and daughter bought a parasailing excursion while aboard a cruise ship. What should have been a thrilling adventure shared between the two turned into a nightmare while the two were up in the air. A malfunction with the excursion equipment caused them to fall rapidly toward the water. Tragically, the mother did not survive, and her daughter was left with a traumatic brain injury. The case was resolved with a combined settlement of $7.25 million for the families.
In another cruise ship excursion case, Leesfield & Partners recovered nearly $3 million for the tragic death of our client’s adult son. In that case, the young man was traveling with his family and ventured out on a cruise-sanctioned bus excursion. When the bus was involved in a crash, our client’s son was ejected and suffered fatal injuries, a devastating loss for the family.
A rollover ATV crash on a shore excursion caused serious injuries to multiple passengers. Leesfield & Partners settled the case for over $1.2 million.
Our 68-year-old client sustained severe injuries, including a fractured femur, when thrown off a “banana boat” during a cruise’s water sport excursion. The firm secured a $600,000 settlement in that case.
In one ongoing case being handled by Partner Justin B. Shapiro, our client was on a jet ski guided tour while vacationing on a cruise ship. The activity, which is marketed to novices, proved to be much more difficult than passengers were led to believe. As the tour was underway, our client was hit by the jet ski of her tour guide when he suddenly and violently slammed into her from behind.
She suffered spinal fractures and severe bruising as a result of this incident.
If you were involved in a cruise ship accident, don’t wait. Call a Leesfield & Partners attorney today at 305-854-4900 to see if you may be eligible for compensation.
