cruise ship medical malpractice Tag Archives

Published on: December 18, 2024

College Athlete Convicted of attacking 17-year-old on Carnival Cruise Ship, officials say

A man convicted of raping a 17-year-old on a Carnival Cruise sexually assaulted at least half a dozen other people, according to an FBI investigation.

Jalen Thomas Kelley, 22, of Abingdon, Maryland, was convicted of aggravated sexual abuse, sexual abuse and assault after police say he raped a minor aboard the Carnival Legend in January 2023. During the two-week trial, six other people spoke out against Kelley and testified that he had sexually assaulted them in separate incidents.

Officials with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Maryland said in a news release that Kelley could face a maximum sentence of life in prison. As of Tuesday morning, he had not been sentenced. His sentencing will be determined by a federal district court judge.

Published on: November 15, 2024

Photos Show Fallout of Bad Weather Damage to Royal Caribbean Cruise Ship

By Leesfield & Partners

Photos were published online of the damage to a cruise ship that was hit by storm-force winds while sailing from Spain to Miami.

The frightening voyage resulted in the injury of at least one passenger who will be allowed to evacuate the ship for additional medical care on shore in Las Palmas, Spain. No other details, including the condition of the passenger, were immediately available Wednesday.

Passengers reported to CBS news that their captain said over the ship’s intercom speakers that the ship was impacted by winds that had gone from 46 mph to over 80 mph.

Published on: November 15, 2024

Cruise Ship Passenger Evacuated Amid Medical Crisis. Here’s What You Need to Know About Most Cruise Lines.

By Leesfield & Partners

A cruise passenger recently experienced a medical crisis and was successfully evacuated. However, in the experience of Leesfield & Partners, such evacuations are not always granted. When they are denied, it often results in serious harm to the passenger’s health.

One reason a cruise ship might deny a passenger a medical evacuation is because evacuations often result in a delayed voyage, which impacts their passengers’ traveling plans and their own schedules. Thankfully, the 69-year-old woman at the center of the recent incident was able to seek additional and potentially life-saving medical attention thanks to the evacuation.

The woman was taken by helicopter from her Carnival Cruise Lines ship to the Fernando Luis Ribas Dominicci Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and was accompanied by her spouse and one staffer from the on board medical team, according to reporting from a national news outlet. Once there, local emergency responders transported her to Centro Médico Hospital.

Published on: November 12, 2024

Hurricane-Force Winds Injure Cruise Ship Passenger. What Do These Companies Owe Their Passengers?

By Leesfield & Partners

Hurricane-Force Winds Injure Cruise Ship Passenger. What Do These Companies Owe Their Passengers?

A Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines passenger was injured after their ship was hit by forceful winds, according to USA Today.

The ship, Royal Caribbean’s Explorer of the Seas, “experienced sudden movement” on Nov. 7 as the ship headed to Miami, Florida, from Barcelona, Spain. The incident happened as the ship sailed through Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands. The passenger is being disembarked for additional medical attention, a cruise line spokesperson told reporters.

Published on: October 25, 2024

Critics Rave Over Cruise Ship Doctor TV Show. Leesfield & Partners Knows the Reality is Starkly Different

By Leesfield & Partners

Despite great reviews calling Joshua Jackson a “miracle worker” for pulling off the antics shown in his new show, Doctor Odyssey, which follows the adventures of a cruise ship doctor, Leesfield & Partners knows the bleak reality and its consequences for passengers.

In nearly five decades of personal injury practice in Miami, Leesfield & Partners attorneys have recovered over $66 million for hundreds of victims of negligence at the hands of cruise ship doctors. Despite these companies marketing their ships as vessels with state-of-the-art infirmaries and staffed with some of the leading medical professionals in the field, this is often not the case. In fact, it has been the experience of this law firm that these ships have hired subpar doctors and nurses who do not meet the standards necessary to practice medicine in the United States.

These companies are able to skirt these regulations because they operate under different regulations while at sea, often traveling between countries and in international waters, paving the way for doctors who are not licensed in the U.S. to be hired for these roles.

Published on: October 2, 2024

At Least 180 Passengers Fell Ill Aboard Royal Caribbean International’s Radiance of the Seas. What Happened to Them?

By Leesfield & Partners

Over 180 people were sickened with a suspected gastrointestinal illness while vacationing on a seven-day voyage aboard Royal Caribbean International’s Radiance of the Seas cruise ship, the Centers for Disease Control announced Monday.

As of Tuesday, the cause of an illness that led to 180 passengers becoming sick aboard the ship had not been released. A total of 2,172 passengers were on board at the time and the afflicted accounted for just over 8% of passengers.

Three of the over 800 crewmembers on the ship reported being sick. Since the illness was discovered, RCI and its working crew allegedly increased cleaning and disinfection procedures to combat the spread of the illness, made announcements to notify passengers of the outbreak and collected samples from the sick for testing.

Published on: October 19, 2021

Malpractice of cruise ship doctor searching Google for what to do results in $3,337,500 arbitration award against cruise line

By Leesfield & Partners

Ilija Loncar, a crewmember on a cruise ship, was feeling ill and reported to the ship’s doctor mid-voyage. Already feeling nauseous, Ilija threw up in front of the nurse. In response, the ship’s doctor ordered the maximum allowable dose of 25 mg Promethazine by intraveinous injection instead of the manufacturer recommended deep Intramuscular route.

Promethazine hydrochloride is a highly toxic caustic drug – The FDA requires the drug’s manufacturer to include a “black box” on the drug’s labels to warn medical providers about the risk of severe tissue damage if the drug is not administered correctly:

BLACK BOX WARNING:

Published on: June 8, 2021

Cruise with Care I

By Leesfield & Partners

Pitfalls for Passengers:

Disney Cruise Lines re-opens June 26 with all major cruise lines to follow.

Beware of injuries on Inaugural cruises. . . The cruise industry is re-opening with a fury. There is no certainty on how they will handle COVID, or how well their reinstated crew is trained. Remember, even before COVID, numerous cases of Norovirus were reported annually as ships came to port. So, Sanitation and safety issues must be paramount along with crowd control and CDC compliance. Will your co-passengers be vaccinated? Are you willing to spend days or weeks with those likely to spread the virus? Or, worse yet, confined in a ship’s infirmary?