Cruise Ship Lawyers Blog
Two cruise ship passengers were evacuated from a ship off the coast of Washington state Sunday when hit with two separate medical emergencies, however, Leesfield & Partners attorneys know this is not always the case.
Thankfully, however, that was not the case for two passengers facing recent medical emergencies. In these cases, a 52-year-old woman and a 99-year-old man were suffering from separate emergencies. The woman was suffering from cardiac arrest and the man was experiencing “complete esophageal obstruction,” according to reporting from CBS News.
The ship is estimated to be around 145 nautical miles west of Cape Flattery in Washington state at the time of the evacuations. The U.S. Coast Guard coordinated with the Royal Canadian Air Force and Canadian Coast Guard to evacuate the passengers.
For nearly five decades, our trial attorneys have represented injured clients and grieving families in a wide range of personal injury cases. Among them are numerous claims against cruise lines whose doctors and medical staff have failed passengers in times of urgent need. Too often, we see substandard medical care, delayed diagnoses, or outright refusals to evacuate passengers facing medical emergencies. These denials are not oversights — they are decisions being made to avoid costly course changes or delays that might upset passengers and cut into corporate profits. Time and again, Leesfield & Partners has witnessed the devastating consequences of cruise lines putting their schedules and revenue above the people in their care.
Leesfield & Partners
With its landmark office in Miami-Dade County, just 17 minutes from Port Miami, Leesfield & Partners has seen countless clients whose medical emergencies have been exacerbated or worsened after being denied an evacuation by a cruise ship. Tragically, several clients have lost a loved one due to this refusal. While evacuating a passenger from a cruise ship can be a complex process — often shaped by safety considerations, weather conditions, and geography — the well-being of a passenger in medical distress should remain a top priority.
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 the doctors and medical staff on board are equipped with the training and tools necessary to treat medical emergencies.
Cases Involving Denied Evacuations
One such case handled by the firm involved a family that had booked a cruise to celebrate a milestone anniversary. Though evacuation insurance was purchased, the cruise line refused to evacuate one family member who was having a heart attack in port. Instead of getting him off the ship and to a hospital, the ship left with him still on board and sailed to Puerto Rico. The man spent 18 hours on the cruise where he later died.
He could have been saved had crewmembers taken the necessary steps to evacuate him. Due to this decision, this family lost a beloved husband, father and grandfather. A multi-million recovery for negligent infliction of emotional stress was secured by Leesfield & Partners attorneys for the family.
An elderly woman suffering from a hemorrhagic stroke who was evacuated from her cruise for medical treatment died due to the negligence of that cruise line. The woman was disembarked in Freeport, Bahamas, to be transported to a hospital in Broward County, Florida. She died waiting to be transferred because the cruise line failed to ensure the airport was open when she arrived.
Leesfield & Partners also represented a Canadian couple traveling throughout North America as missionaries. The couple was sailing from Los Angeles to the Mexican Pacific Coast when the husband experienced a medical emergency and required a life-saving blood transfusion and needed to be evacuated. The cruise line was ill-equipped to treat the husband with an improper medical facility. The couple was allowed to board a dinghy to shore and was taken to a third-world infirmary. Once there, the man needed frozen plasma but had to wait for it to be thawed with a hand-held fan. The man died before it could be thawed.
Attorneys with the firm secured a multi-million dollar settlement for the man’s family.
Other Cruise Ship Medical Malpractice Cases
While on a cruise ship, a 16-year-old Leesfield & Partners client was suffering a stroke. Despite her clear signs and her family’s insistence, doctors disregarded them on the basis that teenagers “don’t have strokes.”
Leesfield & Partners attorneys secured a multi-million-dollar settlement in that case.
In a medical malpractice case involving a 9-month-old baby whose meningitis was misdiagnosed by cruise ship doctors, Leesfield & Partners attorneys obtained a multi-million-dollar recovery. The child in that case underwent multiple amputations due to the doctor’s failure.
For a 72-year-old who worked as a nurse before her retirement, Leesfield & Partners obtained a $4.24 million settlement after a cruise line failed to test blood administered to her during a medical emergency. As a result, the woman was later diagnosed with HIV. The transfused blood was donated by another passenger.
A horrific example of a cruise ship doctor’s negligent medical care involved a crew member who went to the infirmary with symptoms of nausea. While giving him medication that could have eased his symptoms, the cruise’s medical staff ignored a black box warning label on the box that instructed them to give the drug slowly and inject it deep into the muscle. Instead, this staff injected the medication into the man’s IV all at once. He was in immediate agony, the start of an hours-long, excruciating experience.
Doctors aboard the cruise ship searched online for what to do. When the man was eventually able to seek medica treatment on land, his right arm had undergone severe tissue damage. In the end, it could not be saved and doctors had to amputate.
The man was awarded over $3.3 million at arbitration.
Another Leesfield & Partner client slipped while on a major cruise line and displaced her kneecap, resulting in the woman requiring surgery and the installation of metal hardware. The woman had been traveling on the cruise line when she walked across a dance floor where another passenger had spilled a drink earlier. Because the dance floor was poorly lit to create the feel of being in a nightclub, the woman could not see and fell hard to the floor. Crewmembers were aware of the spill and had been asked to clean it but did not. Neither did they put up signs warning passengers about the wet floor.
Due to the crewmember’s negligence, the woman suffered permanent and severe injuries. Partner Justin B. Shapiro secured a $500,000 award for the woman in that case.
