Cruise Bruise Blog
January 2, 2010
January 2, 2010
Passenger Overboard On New Year's Eve Is Crew Member's Wife
Neha Chhikara, 23, was aboard Monarch of the Seas in the Caribbean on New Year's Eve, when she went overboard from the port side 11th deck around 0411 hours on Thursday, December 31, 2009.
Chhikara was reported missing by her husband, a crew member aboard the cruise ship, shortly after midnight. Mrs. Chhikara was last seen alive around 0345 hours.
She was the last overboard person for 2009, in what had been an unusually busy year for cruise industry search and rescue operations.
Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines' Monarch Of The Seas had embarked from Port Canaveral, in Cape Canaveral, Florida on Monday, December 28, 2009 for a five-day voyage. The ship was en route to Little Stirrup Cay from Nassau, Bahamas.
The United States Coast Guard (USCG) launched an HU-25 Falcon jet crew from Air Station Miami, an HH-60 Jayhawker helicopter crew from the Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center (AUTEC) on Andirons Island, Bahamas and USCG Cutter Cormorant, homeport in Fort Pierce, Florida.
January 2, 2010
Elderly Passenger Gets Medevac On New Year's Eve Near Colombia
A British woman, 71, suffered a heart attack on Thursday, December 31, 2009, requiring a medevac while the Fred Olsen Cruise Lines' MS Braemar was off the coast Of Cartagena, Colombia.
A Colombian navy helicopter met the ship about 25 nautical miles off coast and transported the elderly woman to the nearest hospital.
Cruise ship personnel placed the woman on a stretcher and the crew of the helicopter used cables to lift her up, according to the navy officer in Cartagena.
The Colombian navy credited the chopper crew’s training for their ability to execute "the delicate rescue maneuver," adding that the British woman was recovering "satisfactorily" at a hospital in Cartagena.
January 2, 2010
Jury Awards $9.2 In Compensation To Man Injured In Cruise Ship Slip And Fall
While Danny Simpson, 42, from the United Kingdom was aboard Norwegian Cruise Lines' Norwegian Crown in the spa area of the ship, he slipped and fell. Simpson worked aboard the ship as a fitness instructor. What resulted ruined his life; a back injury with nerve damage that left him impotent and incontinent and in debt to over $500,000 (and growing) in medical bills and lost wages.
The jury award for economic losses, medical expenses and future pain and suffering was against the spa operators, Steiner Leisure Limited (NAS: STNR).
The details related to the case say a woman on a treadmill in the spa vomited. Crew aboard the ship were called to clean up the mess, and didn't dry the floor after washing it, nor blocked it off. The cleaner told Simpson and his supervisor that the area was ready for use. Simpson came into the area, slipped and fell resulting in lifelong injury to the physically fit man who was in the prime of his life.
While the cleaner worked for NCL, the location of the incident was within Steiner control. While NCL settled with Simpson out of court, Steiner decided to take their chances in court with a jury left to decide if they were negligent.
The jury took less than hour to decide on the award, including time spent eating lunch. It is safe to say it was a cut and dried case in the minds' of jury members.
