Elizabeth Carlisle
Cruise Ship Passenger Left Sterile After Doctor Ignorance
Carnival Cruise Lines - Carnival Ecstasy
Elizabeth Carlisle
Event Date: March, 1997
Last Updated: July 26, 2007
Bruise: Medical Malpractice
Bruise Location: Caribbean
Age: 14
Home Town: Ann Arbor, MI
Cruise Line: Carnival Cruise Lines
Cruise Ship: Ecstasy
Details:
Elizabeth on a cruise with her family when she suddenly became ill with severe abdominal pain. Her family took her to see the cruise ship's physician, Dr. Mauro Neri. Neri diagnosed the girl with the flu. Her pain continued and grew worst, until the family felt it was best to fly home with Elizabeth.
Once home, the family sought the advice of an American physician, and it was discovered that Elizabeths was suffering not from the flu, but instead from appendicitis, her appendix had ruptured, and it was removed. This severe medical condition, and lack of immediate medical attention resulted in Elizabeth becoming sterilized, unable to have children.
The cruise line has said that the doctor was in an independent contractor, not a cruise line employee. Though he wore the ship's officer issued uniform, just as other ship's officers, and was paid a salary of $1,057 per week, the cruise line has maintained that the ship's doctor did not work for the cruise line, and therefore, the cruise line is not liable for his incompetence.
The cruise line, in court, has repeatedly quoted the terms of their passenger ticket that apply to medical services received on the ship, "He is not and shall not be considered in any respect whatsoever as the employee, servant or agent of the carrier and the carrier shall not be liable ..." This in effect means that ship's doctor can be an absolute fool, make really bad medical decisions, and get away with it, legally. The cruise line only has an obligation to ensure the doctor is properly licensed to perform medicine.
Now, it is important to realize that in 1997 the salary of $1057 a week ($54,964 a year) was a lot of money. However, for a western trained doctor to make only a thousand dollars a week, when doctors working at hospitals, clinics, and in their own practices were/are making $150,000 to $500,000 per year or more, depending on their field of expertise, $1057 is an extremely low wage. You have to wonder why any well-trained doctor would work for such low wages.
Justice Peggy Quince, a Supreme Court of Florida judge ruled in February 2006 on this case that the cruise line was not responsible, because a long line of precedents supports the view that a shipowner "may not be held vicariously liable for the medical negligence of its shipboard doctor."
While every other person wearing a cruise ship uniform, is an employee of the cruise line, and the passengers see this doctor, wearing a uniform, and would assume, unless they read that extremely fine print on their ticket, that he was indeed a cruise line employee, he is not.
The decision by Quince in Darce Carlisle v. Carnival Corp, turned around a decision by Judge Joseph Nesbitt, senior judge of Florida's 3rd District Court of Appeal. He had ruled, that while this had always been accepted logic in years long gone by, that times had changed, and the the ship had a duty to provide medical services for the passengers, and crew.
Nesbitt says, "Because it is foreseeable that some cruise passengers at sea will develop medical problems and the only realistic alternative for such an ill or injured passenger is treatment by the ship's doctor provided by the cruise line, there is an element of control over the doctor-patient relationship."
Nesbitt has further stated, "While the presence of an onboard physician is not required by law, the practical realities of the competitive cruise industry, and the reasonably anticipated risks of taking a small city of people to sea for days at a time, all but dictate a doctor's presence," Judges Gerald Cope and Juan Ramirez Jr. concurred. This case continues in the courts.
It is a reminder to all cruise ship's passengers, that though every crew member onboard a ship is a cruise line employee, wearing the cruise line uniform, and though any person paid a "salary" in the real world, is indeed an employee of the company paying the salary, the cruise ship doctor does NOT work for the cruise line and has no obligation at all to perform services with any reasonable level of expertise . . until a future verdict is unheld, making the cruise lines responsible for EVERY employee onboard their ships.
It is not only the ship's doctor working under this veil of protection, the policy also covers the nurses and physicians beauty technicians.
This case, now in it's 11th year, also shows how long the battle can become, when it comes to fighting the cruise lines.
