People get sick on cruise ships. People get injured on cruise ships. All the time.

Which is why cruise ships have to be equipped with medical centers that are staffed by competent,

educated and experienced doctors and nurses.

Able to make accurate medical decisions, decisions that don’t harm the patient or kill the patient.

Since medical centers on cruise lines don’t have all the diagnostic tools that a modern hospital has,

the correct medical decision made by cruise ship doctors is to stabilize the patient until they can be

safely taken off the ship and brought to a shoreside medical facility that can provide the correct

diagnosis and treatment.

The cruise ship doctors care decision should always has to be to put the patient’s safety, well being

and life first. Safety first. Always.

When these rules are not followed and the patient is not properly stabilized, or the patient’s safety is

not put as a priority, the patient can be seriously and permanently harmed, paralyzed or even die.

Cruise Lines Hire and Retain Their Doctors.

When selecting the doctors on cruise ships, the cruise lines are free to interview and hire anyone they

want. And they should hire the very best the world has to offer.

Not the cheapest.

Not the youngest, but the very best available.

Carnival Cruise Line is the largest cruise line in the world and has dozens of ships cruising on any

given day with tens of thousands of passenger onboard. Plus crew.

These doctors are responsible to respond and care for injured and sick passengers, 24 hours a day.

When confronted with a medical situation that is beyond their experience, or expertise, they have

available the ability to contact a shoreside specialist in any given area of medicine, such as

pediatrics, cardiology, neurology or surgery.

Not reaching our for help with a medical emergency arises that is beyond the cruise ship doctors’

expertise is malpractice. Assuming that the doctor possesses a skill or knowledge that he or she

does not is malpractice, when the doctor makes a decision that is wrong and hurts the patient.

Additionally in some situations not getting the patient off the ship fast enough or sending them to the

wrong type of shoreside facility is also medical malpractice.

One of the most important things to do when evaluating a neck injury is to stabilize the neck.

Because if there is a fracture and the neck is not stabilized, further injury can occur, if the spinal cord

gets damaged.

These injuries included paralysis.

Cruise ships have very limited diagnostic tests; there are no CT Scans or MRIs on the ship. In fact,

most are generally limited to just conventional x-rays.

However, with neck injuries multiple x-rays are required to obtain multiple views. One x-ray of just

one view is not sufficient. And failure to obtain the appropriate number of view and failure to read the

x-rays correctly can lead to catastrophic injuries. Additionally, if the x-ray is unclear or if the ship’s

doctor is uncertain of what the x-ray is showing, he or she must send the images to a shore-side

radiologist who is competent in reading them.

Additionally the neck brace must remain in place until the patient is cleared completely. Any doubt as

to what the x-rays should should mean that the patient’s neck is left stabilized and immobilized until

the patient can be fully cleared. If not, this is medical malpractice and can leave the patient with a

devastating, life altering condition.

Our firm has over 50 years of combined legal experience holding cruise lines accountable when their

doctors or nurses commit medical malpractice in failing to diagnose and treat injuries and illness.