NORWEGIAN CRUISE SHIP MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE RESULTS IN DEATH OF PASSENGER
The following is a description of a personal injury case we have filed. This is a case involving a personal injury relating to negligent medical care on the Norwegian Star, a ship owned by Norwegian Cruise Line. Norwegian Cruise Line owns and operates approximately 12 cruise ships under the NCL brand. For each of these ships, Norwegian Cruise Line represents in its marketing materials to prospective passengers in order for them to rely on these representations that Norwegian Cruise Line provides a physician and nurse “on each ship to provide medical care and services”, that the cruise line provides an infirmary on each ship, and that the shipboard physician and nurse are available “24 hours a day for medical emergencies while the ship is at sea”, that it in fact provides medical care for its passengers. This medical care is in the form of “infirmary staff” which includes doctors and nurses and “shipboard infirmaries”. NCL provides more than just a physician. It provides an “infirmary staff” and it provides “shipboard infirmaries”. It also does provide a physician or physicians and holds out those physicians as apparent agents of the cruise line. It holds out the physician as an officer of the ship and someone who acts as an agent of Norwegian Cruise Line. Thus, NCL is in the business of providing medical services, medical facilities, and medical staff, and controls the relationship of the medical staff and the passengers at a time, in this case, when the passenger had no choice as to which medical facility to use, that is, the one onboard the ship. NCL made these representations and voluntarily undertook to provide emergency and non-emergency medical services to the decedent, our client. The master of the ship, the Norwegian Star, a ship owned and operated by Norwegian Cruise Line, made the ultimate decision not to transport the now deceased passenger, our client, from the ship in time when our client was suffering from a heart attack. That decision was made out of concern for the ship’s schedule and budget, not for the life of its passenger. As a result of that decision, our client did not receive medical attention in a sophisticated medical facility which could properly monitor and treat his condition. Also as a result of that decision, our client remained onboard the ship where the ship’s infirmary staff and the ship’s medical facilities made decisions which fell below the standard of care and which were unreasonable under the circumstances, causing our client’s incapacitation and eventual death. As a result of the cruise line’s negligence, our client suffered horrific pain and suffering and mental anguish prior to falling into a vegetative state and his eventual death.
Attorney John H. (Jack) Hickey and his team handle a wide range of cases, including but not limited to cruise ship accidents, admiralty and maritime accident cases, medical malpractice, wrongful death, premises liability, railroad accidents and car accidents. We represent victims from all over the nation, the world and the state of Florida.