Cruise Ship Lawyers Blog
A cruise ship’s captain died after suffering a medical emergency at sea, officials said.
“It is with profound sadness that we share the news of the passing of Captain Michele Bartolomei, who had a sudden medical emergency and died onboard Diamond Princess,” Princess Cruises told reporters with PEOPLE Magazine. “Captain Bartolomei was a respected leader, whose decades of service at sea exemplified professionalism, dedication, and care for both guests and crew.”
The incident happened Monday while the ship was in Taiwan in the middle of a 19-day voyage. Passengers were given the news of the captain’s passing in a letter that was delivered to their cabins that informed them of which captain would be taking over for the rest of their trip.
At the time of his death, Bartolomei had been with the cruise line since August 1995. In that time, he completed 18 seasons in Alaska, navigating the Inside Passage — a coastal route known for being one of the few in the world deep and sheltered enough for cruise ships to pass close to cliffs, offering spectacular views.
He described himself as a passionate angler who often fished on his own boat in the Pacific Northwest.
Leesfield & Partners
Leesfield & Partners is a personal injury law firm operating out of Key West, Orlando and Miami, a city that is home to one of the largest passenger cruise ports in the world. With that location, the firm has expanded its cruise ship litigation practice area on par with the rapid growth of the modern-day cruising industry. The firm has handled cases involving just about every injury that can occur on a cruise ship, including medical malpractice at the hands of a ship’s medical staff.
In many cases handled by Leesfield & Partners, the doctors and medical personnel aboard these ships routinely demonstrated their inability to properly treat their patients. Many of these staffers are not licensed in the United States, meaning they were not required to undergo the stringent training and testing procedures required of U.S. doctors. This has led to inadequate medical care and the misdiagnosis of many patients, resulting in further injury or death. Compounding matters is the fact that many of these medical professionals are forced to put the interest of the cruise’s schedule above their patients, causing necessary, medical evacuations to be delayed or refused altogether.
Previous Cruise 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.
A cruise ship doctor’s failure to diagnose meningococcal meningitis resulted in the multi-digital and foot amputations of an infant. Leesfield & Partners recovered $5.5 million for the family in that case.
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.
Another woman, 65, suffered a stroke while onboard a cruise ship that failed to evacuate her in a timely manner. She was awarded $4 million thanks to the diligence and hard work of Leesfield & Partners.
The firm recovered over $3 million for a crew member whose arm was amputated due to the negligence and lack of knowledge of a cruise ship’s medical professionals.
Bernardo Pimentel II, a Trial Attorney at the firm, is handling a case in which a woman traveling on a 21-day cruise ship voyage in Brazil suffered a severe injury while on shore. While returning to the ship, our client tripped and fell on an uneven bridge, seriously injuring her left ankle, knee, arm and elbow, which left her in a great deal of pain. Despite this pain, however, she was able to walk back to the tender boat that would take her to the ship.
She informed the crew that she would need to visit the infirmary but no action was taken to ensure that medical personnel would be on the scene to assist her when she arrived. As a result, she was forced to disembark without assistance and walk up the gangway to the ship of her own accord. To gather herself, she paused while in extreme pain on the gangway and, upon reaching the ship’s security checkpoint, told the crew she needed immediate medical attention.
Again, the crew failed to prove a wheelchair or any means of transport to the infirmary. At this point, crew members approached her with one grabbing her arm to support her. She fell the ground in agony, causing the crew to scramble to finally grab a wheelchair for our client to be taken to the infirmary where she was diagnosed with multiple fractures to her left hip and shoulder.
A few 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 in recovery at a hospital in Florida before she was able to return to her home in another state.
This case is ongoing.
Other Medical Negligence Cases
The skilled attorneys at Leesfield & Partners have handled numerous medical negligence cases both on land and at sea. Trial Attorney Carlos A. Fabano specializes in representing patients and their families in medical malpractice cases, including incidents that have resulted in the loss of a loved one or catastrophic brain injuries. Before joining the firm, he represented doctors and other medical professionals for over a decade and now utilizes that knowledge to help injured patients and grieving families.
Previously, Leesfield & Partners represented a young woman and her son in a medical malpractice case, obtaining a multi-million-dollar settlement for the family. In that case, the woman’s husband was ignored by ER doctors when he needed medical attention. The firm secured a settlement within 10 months while the claim was in a pre-suit period.
In a case in which a doctor used controversial labor techniques on a mother giving birth, Leesfield & Partners secured a $24.1 million award for the family. The Central Florida woman was being treated by an obstetrician as she labored for days. After unsuccessful induction, the doctor used a vacuum extractor on the woman for over 45 minutes before ordering nurses to apply fundal pressure, a technique involving pressure to a mother’s abdomen to push a baby down the birthing canal.
The technique is dangerous as it can result in uterine rupture, a rare but life-threatening complication. As the pressure was applied to the laboring mother in this case, the uterus ruptured and cut off oxygen supply to the baby who was born with cerebral palsy.
The award, handed down by a jury following a three-week-long trial, is the largest of its kind in Seminole County, Florida history.
Another birth trauma case handled by Leesfield & Partners resulted in an over $10.2 million recovery for the family.
For the family of a 39-year-old mother, Leesfield & Partners attorneys secured a $4.3 million settlement after doctors failed to treat a brain cyst that resulted in brain herniation. In addition to brain injuries, the cyst also caused cardiac arrest and the woman’s death.
The firm secured over $8.7 million for a client injured in a medical malpractice case.
In conjunction with another firm, alters, Boldt, Rash Brown & Culmo, Leesfield & Partners obtained a $3.2 million verdict for the care of a woman severely injured in a medical malpractice case.
