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The Coast Guard rescued a 66-year-old passenger aboard the Carnival cruise ship Splendor early yesterday morning. The cruise ship radioed the Coast Guard at 10:45 p.m. Tuesday that a male passenger was in medical distress. A MH-60 Jayhawak helicopter crew met Splendor at 1:30 a.m. the next mornign while the ship was near the North Carolina coast. It is unknown if the passenger suffered an accident aboard the cruise ship. The Splendor is currently making weekly voyages from New York to the Bahamas.

It is being widely reported that a 21-year-old passenger was medically evacuated from the Disney Fantasy last Thursday after complaining of chest pains. It has been learned that the man had completed two scuba dives the day before. X-rays preformed aboard the cruise ship showed one of his lungs was 40% collapsed. Based upon this medical finding, the Coast Guard was notified and a helicopter crew was dispatched to take the ill passenger off the ship. The passenger was taken to Mariner’s Hospital in Tavanier.

There has been much in the news lately about Norovirus outbreaks aboard cruise ships. The most noteworthy is the outbreak that occurred on the Royal Caribbean Explorer of the Seas where nearly 700 people were stricken by Norovirus. Princess Cruise Lines and NCL also had Norovirus outbreaks aboard their ships already this year. A casual observer may ask, why Norovirus and cruise ships go hand-in-hand? The answer is simple. Gastrointestional viruses are highly contagious. Cruise ships are floating cities where thousands of people touch common objects such as handrails, elevator buttons, door handles and the like. Infected people leave the virus on those surfaces and non-infected passengers touch the infected surfaces and the virus passes. Another reason why Norovirus flourishes on cruise ships is by the way cruise lines utilize their staff. A person who had a case of Norovirus can transmit the bug to others for two weeks or more after the symptoms subside. As a cruise injury attorney, I have read thousands of crew medical files. From my experience, cruise lines have an interest to keep their staff working and to return them back to duty as soon as possible so they could crew these massive floating hotels. The statistics from the CDC always report many more passengers as being infected than crewmembers. In the case of the Explorer of the Seas outbreak 634 (20.6%) passengers reported having the virus was only 55 (4.7%) crewmember reported symptoms. NCL’s Norwegian Star outbreak is similar. In that case, ill passengers totaled 130 (5.61%) as opposed to 12 (1.15%) crewmembers. Likewise, Princess Cruise Lines’ Caribbean Princess outbreak had 181 (5.8%) reported ill whereas the crew total was only 11 (0.96%). This means the cruise lines are most likely sending crewmembers back to work even though they still carry and could transmit the virus to others. These same crewmembers that have been found “fit for duty” by the ship doctors are making the passengers’ beds, cooking and serving food for the buffets as well as making the drinks at the ship’s bars. In other words, the cruise lines could be playing a large role in causing these outbreaks. Given cruise lines are money driven and the only way they make money is constantly operating their ship sick crew and all, I do not think we have heard the last of Norovirus outbreak on cruise ships.

Most Florida boat accident victims do not know there is a law on the books which allows boat owners to sue them in Federal court! The goal of such lawsuits is to obtain a ruling that either exonerates the boat owner from wrong doing or limit the amount the injured in the boating accident could receive in compensation. The Shipowners’ Limitation of Liability Act passed by Congress in 1851 allows just that. Most people are also unaware this federal law also allows the boat owner to pick the court where the lawsuit must take place. Let’s assume you were injured in a boating accident and your lawyer files the case in the local state court. Under the Act, the boat owner’s lawyer can file a lawsuit in Federal court which could be hundreds of miles from where you live. The federal judge will then order the state court to relinquish jurisdiction requiring you to re-file your case in the federal court where the boat owner selected.

The Coast Guard reports it has airlifted an injured cruise passenger who fell and broke her hip aboard the Carnival Splendor today. The 3,006 passenger cruise ship was off the New Jersey coast when the Coast Guard received the call that an at-sea rescue was necessary. A helicopter crew from Air Station Atlantic City hoisted the 84-year-old Canadian woman and transferred her to AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center for further treatment. The injured passenger’s condition is unknown at this time. The Carnival Splendor is currently making weekly voyages to the Bahamas from New York. This instance marks the second time this week the Coast Guard had to medevac an injured passenger from a Carnival cruise ship. On Wednesday the a passenger experiencing extreme abdominal pain was airlifed off the Carnival Fascination.