Here's a New One... "Celebrity Cruise Ship Kept Corpse in Drink Cooler"

[mnocket]

https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/celebrity-cruise-ship-kept-dead-body-in-beverage-cooler-lawsuit-alleges-16809838

 

Initially thought of a picnic cooler, but it was a walk in cooler.  Seems the morgue was not working, so this was their solution.  The cooler was not at a proper temperature and the body started to decompose.  Biggest problem is that the wife was not informed about the situation. Kind of a bad situation all around.  Lawsuit filed.

 

Edited April 20, 2023 by mnocket

[mom says]

Looks like the ship was in a no win situation if the morgue was out of order.  Put it in the cooler and it starts to decompose. Leave it out, and it decomposes faster and stinks up the joint. Put it in a freezer and it gets freezer burn and decomposes even faster as it thaws out later.

 

What good would have come from informing the wife? It wouldn't change anything. And of course a suit was filed. Isn't that SOP in the US?

[Covepointcruiser]

Unless Celebrity caused the death, what responsibility does the ship have?     I am not sure you even have the option of burial at sea although that would seem better than contaminating food or drink storage for remaining passengers.   If the body cooler(s) were available, how man could they hold?    Will insurance cover offloading of body at next port, this can be expensive.

 

 

[mayleeman]

38 minutes ago, mom says said:

What good would have come from informing the wife?

 

The suit says they should have inspected the morgue's condition prior to giving her what no doubt appeared to be equivalent options. On the merits, Celeb cannot win this if the morgue was not working and they made no effort to find out what they should do. They undertook to transport the body in a morgue designed for preservation which was relied upon by the wife, and if they did so negligently causing the severe decomp complained of, the liability is almost certain. (This does not address damages, or if she could file suit in Florida, or other issues possibly involving comtractual limitations, etc.).

 

This is no different than an undertaker taking a body from a hospital for later burial, and leaving it it unchilled in the transportation ambulance for a week.

 

It will settle if there is no legal bar causing outright dismissal. No defense attorney will want those pictures and descriptions going before a jury!

[Arizona Wildcat]

3 hours ago, mnocket said:

https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/celebrity-cruise-ship-kept-dead-body-in-beverage-cooler-lawsuit-alleges-16809838

 

Initially thought of a picnic cooler, but it was a walk in cooler.  Seems the morgue was not working, so this was their solution.  The cooler was not at a proper temperature and the body started to decompose.  Biggest problem is that the wife was not informed about the situation. Kind of a bad situation all around.  Lawsuit filed.

 

The wife was given a choice.  Take the body off at Puerto Rico - which is part of the US! - or have a less than desirable situation on board with storage.  Puerto Rico would have cleared everything within 48 hours.  The newspaper article has at least some of the facts wrong.

Unfortunate.  The mistake Celebrity made was giving her the choice.  We do not and will not know exactly what she was told 

And for $39 where I live you can sue anyone for anything.

[prmssk]

So he had to have passed away in the first day or two of the cruise. 

 

I'm a little surprised they gave her a choice.  I would think it would be preferable for the cruise line to release the body to Puerto Rico (a US territory).  I also can't imagine going on with 6 more days of the cruise if my husband had just passed away.  I would think she would be able to fly home faster from Puerto Rico even with dealing with getting her husband's body cleared.

[Covepointcruiser]

You are correct, she should not have been given a choice given the circumstances on board.

If there is a port, corpses should be unloaded as anything can happen with power and equipment on ships.   It’s not like there is an alternative when you are at sea.

[CHEZMARYLOU]

Didn't read the story but is this even true?

 

[Bo1953]

2 hours ago, prmssk said:

So he had to have passed away in the first day or two of the cruise. 

 

I'm a little surprised they gave her a choice.  I would think it would be preferable for the cruise line to release the body to Puerto Rico (a US territory).  I also can't imagine going on with 6 more days of the cruise if my husband had just passed away.  I would think she would be able to fly home faster from Puerto Rico even with dealing with getting her husband's body cleared.

prm - My guess is, she had no travel insurance which would have paid for the re-patriation.

 

bon voyage

Edited April 21, 2023 by Bo1953
Adverb correction...

[prmssk]

1 hour ago, CHEZMARYLOU said:

Didn't read the story but is this even true?

 

Time will tell, maybe.  Right now it's just the wife's allegations in a complaint she filed.

[jelayne]

There are always 2 sides to a lawsuit.

[fshagan]

8 hours ago, Covepointcruiser said:

Will insurance cover offloading of body at next port, this can be expensive.

I always make sure my trip insurance includes "repatriation of remains" coverage, as it can be expensive. Just transporting a body from city to city can cost from $1000 to $3000. International flights for the dead can rack up costs of $15000 according to an internet search I just did. I always get at least $25000 coverage for repatriation of remains. 

 

Those are just airfare costs, and don't include the mortuary that takes the body off the ship, etc. Dying on a cruise can be expensive.

[mnocket]

9 hours ago, mom says said:

Looks like the ship was in a no win situation if the morgue was out of order.  Put it in the cooler and it starts to decompose. Leave it out, and it decomposes faster and stinks up the joint. Put it in a freezer and it gets freezer burn and decomposes even faster as it thaws out later.

 

What good would have come from informing the wife? It wouldn't change anything. And of course a suit was filed. Isn't that SOP in the US?

I think the issue is that she was given 2 choices, but wasn't informed that one would involve the body decomposing due to the ship's morgue being out of order.  From the 1st paragraph of the article.....

 

"the cruise line allegedly advised his wife of two options: allow her husband's remains to be removed from the ship in nearby Puerto Rico, where she would have to stay alone for days pending a possible autopsy, or leave his body with the ship's morgue until the vessel arrived back in the United States."

 

Obviously the body wasn't left in the ship's morgue.

[mnocket]

8 hours ago, Covepointcruiser said:

Unless Celebrity caused the death, what responsibility does the ship have?     I am not sure you even have the option of burial at sea although that would seem better than contaminating food or drink storage for remaining passengers.   If the body cooler(s) were available, how man could they hold?    Will insurance cover offloading of body at next port, this can be expensive.

 

 

It seems Celebrity gave her 2 options - offload in Puerto Rico and have an autopsy done before shipping the body home, or placing the body in the ship's morgue until departing in the US.  She opted to keep the body in the ship's morgue.  The problem was that the morgue was not functioning and they didn't tell her that the body would actually be placed in a walk-in cooler whose temperature was not cold enough to prevent decomposition.

Edited April 21, 2023 by mnocket

[emmas gran]

Our first Transpacific cruise on Princess, we left Sydney and headed to Tasmania where a coffin was offloaded and the gentleman's wife decided to stay with him to fly home. Apparently on longer journeys provision is made for this eventuality.  Another time on HAL Amsterdam we had a below decks tour (another long trip) the morgue was clearly marked on a door next to bakery stores..

[chemmo]

It is worrying to me just how many very, very ill people are choosing to travel, often without insurance or with inadequate insurance….Getting on a ship knowing you have a life threatening condition is very different than boarding and then becoming ill. I do understand the temptation for those who are terminally ill to make the most of their remaining time but there needs to be a level of responsibility within the decision to travel. I lost my husband earlier this year, we would have loved one last cruise but never would have attempted it. 

 

We were shocked on a Caribbean cruise a few years ago to find a UK couple (in their 60’s) tell us they had ‘saved’ £££ in insurance cover by only stating they were visiting the US not that their vacation included a cruise. When we politely questioned what their plan was if they became ill or injured on board their response was ‘the odds were with them’ to stay healthy and if they developed any health issues they would ‘last out’ until they were back on US soil. Needless to say they stayed fit and healthy giving them the feedback that lying to their insurance provider/ not having appropriate cover is fine…

 

I can imagine the distress to the lady re her husband…If she chose to stay on the ship believing her husband’s body would be stored appropriately then Celebrity let her down. I can understand her not wanting to get off in Puerto Rica…I know I would prefer to stay on board with Celebrity staff than face moving mine and my husband’s luggage to a hotel, arrange flights…Much easier to return to Fort Lauderdale. This would also give the wider family time to make necessary arrangements for onward travel as well if necessary.

[emmas gran]

2 hours ago, chemmo said:

I lost my husband earlier this year, we would have loved one last cruise but never would have attempted it. 

 

Please accept my condolences, I lost my wonderful husband in February.

[gold1953]

My dad had a couple at his dinner table while sailing to Hawaii. The guy died so she had a quick cremation in Hawaii and she continued on the voyage. Se said they planned this if it ever happened to one of them

[Bo1953]

4 hours ago, chemmo said:

It is worrying to me just how many very, very ill people are choosing to travel, often without insurance or with inadequate insurance….Getting on a ship knowing you have a life threatening condition is very different than boarding and then becoming ill. I do understand the temptation for those who are terminally ill to make the most of their remaining time but there needs to be a level of responsibility within the decision to travel. I lost my husband earlier this year, we would have loved one last cruise but never would have attempted it. 

 

We were shocked on a Caribbean cruise a few years ago to find a UK couple (in their 60’s) tell us they had ‘saved’ £££ in insurance cover by only stating they were visiting the US not that their vacation included a cruise. When we politely questioned what their plan was if they became ill or injured on board their response was ‘the odds were with them’ to stay healthy and if they developed any health issues they would ‘last out’ until they were back on US soil. Needless to say they stayed fit and healthy giving them the feedback that lying to their insurance provider/ not having appropriate cover is fine…

 

I can imagine the distress to the lady re her husband…If she chose to stay on the ship believing her husband’s body would be stored appropriately then Celebrity let her down. I can understand her not wanting to get off in Puerto Rica…I know I would prefer to stay on board with Celebrity staff than face moving mine and my husband’s luggage to a hotel, arrange flights…Much easier to return to Fort Lauderdale. This would also give the wider family time to make necessary arrangements for onward travel as well if necessary.

I understand your thoughts and approach, yet getting off in PR and calling immediate family as to what has happened, I would "tend" to believe that at least one (1) of the adult children would fly there to help mother sort it out....

 

If not, then there is a bigger challenge at play here vs X's mortuary not operating correctly, which is a problem that could have been out of their control as well... not to excuse that aspect.

 

bon voyage

[NutsAboutGolf]

10 hours ago, jelayne said:

There are always 2 sides to a lawsuit.

 

It's 3, the prosecution, the defense and the actual un-skewed truth...lol

[PH2]

The allegation in the suit (who knows what the truth is) is that the wife was dissuaded from taking the body to PR due to the potential delays in performing an autopsy and having to pay the costs of transporting the body back to the US, so the better option was the ship morgue. And then they put him in a non-morgue cooler which caused decomposition because it wasn't cold enough. IF all of this is true, this should end up in a settlement. I'm surprised Celebrity let it get this far, but then again, we don't know the facts.

[BigAl94]

The facts appear to be that if there was a maintenance issue with the morgue on the ship which should be kept functional and have the ability to properly store a body for up to a week. This could easily have been on a TA with no ports so really all the other issues are irrelevant - it's the fact that the morgue was apparently not functioning as required is the only issue.

[mom says]

But something that we don't know is whether the morgue was out of service at the time of death, or if it broke down later, and the body had to be transferred to the cooler. And was the widow actually "dissuaded" from the PR option by the X staff, or was she simply provided with 2 options and chose the other one?

 

Another thing of note is the woman said they were upset because they couldn't have an open casket due to the decomposition. Yet (according to Wiki) after a week a body is too far gone, even under ideal morgue conditions, for an open casket. 

 

I really don't care for the "reporting" style in this article. Very colorful and designed to skew in a particular direction. Or written by counsel for the plaintiff.

[Bill Miller]

Reporter for the story is a fabulous Florida Gator and highly respected woman journalist. 

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[PH2]

4 minutes ago, Bill Miller said:

 fabulous Florida Gator

 

Oxymoron!