Table Of Content
They were "immediately quarantined," and only one experienced mild symptoms, according to a statement from Royal Caribbean spokesperson Lyan Sierra Caro. Fain acknowledged that there will be incidents where passengers test positive for COVID, but believes Royal Caribbean has the ability to manage those cases and avoid a greater outbreak aboard the ship. He pointed to the recent incidents with the Celebrity Millennium and Adventure of the Seas, saying "those cases were handled." Celebrity Cruises, a subsidiary Royal Caribbean Group, had received approval by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to sail one of its ships with paying passengers on board late last month.
Kanye West jokes about punching man after alleged Bianca Censori sexual assault incident: ‘He had to go to bed’
Celebrity’s actions caused the family “extreme trauma by visualizing Mr. Jones’s body horrifically decomposed, and knowing their husband and father was callously and casually left in a beverage cooler, stripping him of his dignity,” the suit reads. A cruise line stored the body of a passenger who died onboard in a drinks cooler for several days, causing the man’s body to turn green and decompose, the man’s widow alleged in a federal lawsuit filed in Florida last week. Celebrity's actions caused the family "extreme trauma by visualizing Mr. Jones's body horrifically decomposed, and knowing their husband and father was callously and casually left in a beverage cooler, stripping him of his dignity," the suit reads.
Widow sues US cruise line after husband’s body stored in drinks cooler
“Instead, Mr. Jones’ body had, at some time not yet known, had been moved from the ship’s morgue to a cooler on a different floor than the ship’s morgue. The cooler in which Mr. Jones’ body was found by the funeral employee had drinks placed outside of the cooler, and was not at a temperature which was sufficient nor proper for storing a dead body to prevent decomposition,” according to the lawsuit. However, "When the funeral services employee in Ft. Lauderdale was brought onto the ship to retrieve Mr. Jones' body, his body was not located in the ship's morgue," the lawsuit alleges, according to CNN. "The cooler in which Mr. Jones' body was found by the funeral employee had drinks placed outside of the cooler and was not at a temperature which was sufficient nor proper for storing a dead body to prevent decomposition," the complaint said. But when the vessel returned to Fort Lauderdale on 21 August, a sheriff’s office deputy and funeral home employee found that Robert Jones’s body had been placed in a bag on a pallet on the floor of a drinks cooler, according to the lawsuit. The room was not cold enough to prevent the body from decomposing, and funeral staff were reportedly not able to salvage the body enough for an open casket funeral.
How many passengers are vaccinated?
The lawsuit stated that the morgue had stopped working, and the corpse had been placed on a pallet on the floor of a beverage cooler. Since it wasn’t the correct temperature to store a body, Mr. Jones’ remains deteriorated to an advanced state. Celebrity Cruises is being sued for $1 million over the handling of a body, after a passenger passed away. According to the lawsuit, the ship’s morgue was broken, so instead the body was stored in a drink cooler that wasn’t cold enough, leading to further decomposition. I don’t blame her — this is really shocking handling of a very tough situation, and the company should be held accountable, in my opinion.
What are the rules for unvaccinated passengers?
According to the lawsuit, the ship's personnel gave Jones a list of reasons not to take the Puerto Rico option. Marilyn Jones, her daughters, and three grandchildren are suing Celebrity Cruises for $1m in damages.
More from CBS News
An industry pioneer for 35 years, each Celebrity vacation offers experiences you won’t find anywhere else aboard ships which continue to shatter industry expectations with the highly anticipated Celebrity Xcel arriving Fall 2025. According to the outlet, Robert L. Jones, 79, passed away after a “cardiac event” on the Celebrity Equinox cruise ship in August 2022. The complaint said that a funeral-home worker and a sheriff's deputy from Broward County went to collect the corpse and found it improperly stored. The plaintiffs — his wife, daughters, and grandchildren — are seeking $1 million in compensatory damages. According to the lawsuit, there have been at least 37 deaths aboard Celebrity Cruise’s ships since 2001.
Passengers who are unvaccinated will face additional protocols in order to board the ship, including COVID testing at their own cost. "Those people were isolated. … everybody else carried on with their vacation uninterrupted." And Wednesday evening, two guests under 16 and unvaccinated aboard Adventure of the Seas tested positive for COVID after routine testing.
Celebrity Cruises Accused in Lawsuit of Improperly Storing Body in Ship's Cooler, Not Morgue - PEOPLE
Celebrity Cruises Accused in Lawsuit of Improperly Storing Body in Ship's Cooler, Not Morgue.
Posted: Sun, 23 Apr 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
The Passenger's Body Was Not Stored In The Ship's Morgue
Celebrity Cruises delivers an elevated premium vacation experience across our fleet of ships traveling to nearly 300 destinations across more than 70 countries spanning all seven continents. Uniquely offering the intimate feel and thoughtful service of small ships, with the variety and excitement of bigger ones—you can explore the world or get away from it for a little while. With every detail elevated beyond expectations, you will never want to vacation any other way.
Celebrity Cruises let passenger's body decompose after on-board death, lawsuit says
I can appreciate not wanting to offload the body in Puerto Rico, where it would have probably been much more complicated, but the next six days of the cruise must have been rough. Last August, Marilyn Jones and her husband, Robert, set out from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on an eight-day Caribbean cruise aboard the Celebrity Equinox. The family claims that if Celebrity had informed Jones of the out-of-service morgue, she could have chosen to get off in Puerto Rico with the body and potentially still have an open-coffin service. Celebrity Cruises declined to comment on the case, citing “the sensitivity of the alleged facts and out of respect for the family”. According to the lawsuit, which was filed Wednesday in Fort Lauderdale, after Robert Jones died, his widow was given two choices by crew members.
While not every passenger on board has had their COVID vaccines – two adults and 24 kids, about 1% of the total passenger count, are unvaccinated – Royal Caribbean Cruises Chairman and CEO Richard Fain said Friday that he’s confident that the cruise line is ready to get back to business. Lauderdale was unable to salvage his remains enough to be suitable for an open casket wake and funeral, which was a long-standing family custom and was what his family had desired,” reads the lawsuit. Ships have morgues for this very reason, and there are supposed to be protocols in place for handling deaths. Those protocols aren’t always followed, though, and Celebrity Cruises is now facing a lawsuit over how it handled a recent death. Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. It also alleged that Jones was told Puerto Rican authorities might insist on an autopsy, delaying the return of the body.
Widow sues US cruise line after husband’s body stored in drinks cooler - The Guardian US
Widow sues US cruise line after husband’s body stored in drinks cooler.
Posted: Mon, 24 Apr 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Jones died of a cardiac medical emergency while on the Celebrity Equinox cruise ship in August 2022, which was traveling from Fort Lauderdale ports in the Eastern Caribbean. Celebrity Cruises declined to comment, citing the case’s sensitivity and “out of respect for the family.” The Celebrity Equinox, which cruises the Caribbean year-round out of Fort Lauderdale, is flagged out of Malta and can carry almost 3,000 passengers and 1,200 crew members. Lauderdale, a funeral home employee and a deputy from the Broward County Sheriff’s Office were brought on board to retrieve the body only to discover it wasn’t where it was supposed to be.
However, per the complaint, the morgue was out of action, and Jones's body was instead put in a drinks cooler that wasn't cold enough to refrigerate a body. The lawsuit accuses Celebrity of concealing the fact that it didn't have a working morgue on board, and discouraging Jones's wife from taking her husband's body to be processed in Puerto Rico. The ship’s departure is set to come shortly after four passengers on two ships in Royal Caribbean Cruises' lines – the Celebrity Millennium and more recently, the Adventure of the Seas – tested positive for COVID-19.
According to CNN, the woman is accusing the company of improperly storing her husband’s dead body in the ship’s cooler after he died on board. Although requirements vary, modern cruise ships are required to have a working morgue onboard, according to a 2018 report by Thrillist. After all, each ship has thousands of people onboard, and cruises are also popular with elderly people, so every once in a while people will pass away. When the ship arrived in Florida, a funeral home employee and a Broward County sheriff’s deputy found the morgue apparently out of service. They found the body in a walk-in drink cooler in a bag on a palette, according to the suit.
The passengers and their travel party disembarked Thursday in Freeport on Grand Bahama Island. While the lower occupancy means the cruise is less profitable, Fain told CNBC that he wanted to slowly rebuild operations. The ship is sailing at just 36% capacity, a level Fain considers a sign of “untapped demand” given the short notice to book. An excerpt from the lawsuit, reported via CNN, reveals more about the body’s storage location. Celebrity Cruises did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Celebrity Cruises declined to comment, citing the case's sensitivity and "out of respect for the family." The Celebrity Equinox, which cruises the Caribbean year-round out of Fort Lauderdale, is flagged out of Malta and can carry almost 3,000 passengers and 1,200 crew members. While the CDC had told cruise lines that they would need 95% of passengers and 95% of crew vaccinated in order to skip test sailings, the mandate contradicted a Florida state law banning businesses from requiring proof of vaccination. On Saturday, Celebrity Cruises' Celebrity Edge is set to be the first cruise ship to set sail from an American port with paying passengers in more than 15 months. The cooler was allegedly significantly warmer than the near-freezing temperatures needed to store the body, so remains were in “advanced stages of decomposition,” with the body being bloated and green. For her trauma, Ms. Jones, who had been married to her husband for 55 years, and her family are seeking a jury trial and at least $1 million in damages. The lawsuit accuses Celebrity Cruises of acting "recklessly, willfully, and wantonly, and without care for the Jones family's loved one" by failing to ensure that the morgue was working and the remains were stored carefully.
No comments:
Post a Comment