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This morning, we have been looking at
the medical services aboard cruise ships.
Earlier, we detailed the death of Richard Puchowski,
a Miami jury awarded the family 3.4 million dollars
in their lawsuit against Royal Caribbean.
In a moment, we'll look at another tragic case.
This one aboard a Carnival vessel.
Todd Michaels, with the Haggard Law Firm,
has had several cases against cruise lines.
Despite all the lip service and everything else,
large corporations tend to be controlled
by their bottom line.
And from the beginning of time until 2014,
cruise ships could not be held responsible
for the negligence of their doctors.
So they had no financial incentive
to hire competent doctors to put people safety first.
So what happened in 2014?
In a landmark case, the US Court of Appeals
threw out the protection that cruise lines had long enjoyed.
It's known as the Franza Decision,
and it stems from a law suit against Royal Caribbean,
in which a passenger suffered a severe head injury
and the doctor on the ship didn't bother to examine him.
The man then died.
His daughter, Patricia Franza,
sued Royal Caribbean,
but the Federal Judge in Miami threw out the suit,
saying cruise companies can't be held liable
for the negligence of its doctors,
no matter how incompetent those doctors may be.
Well, the appeals court decided that wasn't right.
"We see no reason to follow an outdated rule
"that serves no useful purpose in modern maritime law."
More law suits followed.
In 2020, the parents of a nine month old baby
sued Royal Caribbean after their daughter
had to have part of her arm amputated
because the medical staff
aboard the Symphony of the Seas allegedly refused
to properly diagnose an infection,
and evacuate the child to a hospital
where she could be treated.
In 2019, Norwegian Cruise Lines settled a case
after one of its doctors proscribed the wrong medication
to a 13 year old child that left her
in debilitating pain.
The details of that case have now been sealed.
Cruise lines routinely hide information from the public,
as well as their passengers,
and what they do release is often misleading.
Listen to this exchange I had
with Professor Ross Klein,
who has studied cruise ships for 20 years
and written several books on them.
The cruise industry has done a lot of work
creating public relations documents.
They've worked with organizations
to create standards, so the cruise line can say
that "We meet or exceed all standards."
But those standards are not legislated.
They're not regulations that are agreed upon
by governments or international forums.
The cruise industry didn't include rape kits
on their cruise ships until they were forced to do it
by legislation in 2010.
I mean, they don't do these things voluntarily.
Medical care is there, in part,
because they've gotta have something
in order to comply with international regulations,
which doesn't specify what they actually need.
And the other part is there to make money.
It's a revenue stream.
Is there anybody who's gathering
any type of information that I, as a consumer,
may be able to log on to and see
this cruise line has had X number
of medical malpractice cases or judgements against them?
Or I can look up, for instance,
what are or who are the medical personnel
aboard a particular ship?
Where are they licensed? Where were they trained?
Is there any ability that I have
to be able to look up that information
as a potential passenger?
There's no transparency with regard to
any of the information, in terms of
who are the physicians on board the ships,
what is the history with regard to malpractice
or passenger complaints?
Or even where the physicians are trained
or registered from.
When Ron and Christine Radowski booked a cruise ship
on the Carnival Vista in 2019, departing from Texas,
they just assumed the medical staff
would include experienced, US licensed physicians.
We left port on Sunday.
Had a great time Sunday, Monday, Tuesday.
Wednesday, probably afternoon,
Ron started not feeling too well.
We were at the beach in
let's see, Roatán, Honduras.
Called the medical center.
Thursday morning, asked if I could bring him right in,
right when they opened,
and they said "Yes," you know, "Bring him right down."
Got him down and
he was very sick, had been coughing up blood.
Coughing.
Just having a really rough time.
Couldn't concentrate.
Got in to see the doctor,
and the doctor didn't even examine him.
Just took one look at him
and you know, started pulling up some information
on acid reflux.
And all kinds of things.
And I kept saying to the doctor,
"Please examine him, please look at him.
"He's really ill, he's really sick."
You know,
I just
couldn't imagine the doctor not taking the time
to examine Ron well.
Asked about his symptoms.
Said, "Oh," you know, took one look at Ron,
"Oh, he's got acid reflux, he's a big guy,
"and you know, he might have a common cold.
"Go back to your cabin and rest, you'll be fine."
The doctor was a 27 year old Colombian
who had recently graduated medical school
in his home country.
He was just seemed to be declining.
He wasn't getting any better whatsoever.
Finally, you know,
come Sunday, it was time to get off the ship.
Christine said she wanted to get him off the ship
as quickly as possible,
and loaded Ron onto a wheelchair.
Her father managed to push me off this...
89 year old father, as fast as he could.
And we had to really cut through,
'cause I was getting really ill.
I was really ill.
They didn't wanna let us disembark right away,
and I pleaded and pleaded and pleaded with them,
"Please let us off the ship,
"we've gotta get him to the hospital."
Got off the ship, went directly to the emergency room.
They took him into the emergency room, immediately in.
The doctor started working on him.
He was in full respiratory arrest
when we got to the hospital.
And he was
placed immediately in the ICU.
That was Sunday night.
By Monday, they could not keep his oxygen level up.
And I was told that he would not make it
through the night Monday night
unless he was transferred to another hospital,
and put on the ECMO pump.
He was put on a full ventilator
to do his breathing for him.
And a priest came and gave him his last rites,
and I was told to say my last words to him
because I may not see him alive again.
And it just all happened that fast.
Ron spent, oh gosh, almost three weeks in a coma.
On a full ventilator and on the ECMO pump.
It took three months in a hospital
with rehab, learning how to walk,
learning how to use my hands,
learning how to brush my teeth.
Notice, as we speak, Ron keeps shifting in his chair.
Once in a while, I get these spikes in my legs
that I gotta move 'em.
What was that like for you?
To have to go through all that?
It just changed our lives catastrophically.
It took a lot of time.
It cut 10 years off my career,
because I can't walk like I used to.
My lung capacity ain't what it used to be.
I miss the guys, and I miss work a lot.
That was my career.
It's hard for me to walk,
I can't ever walk bare foot again.
My feet are so sensitive.
I still do rehab at the gym, in the swimming pool.
I cannot go on treadmills
because my feet are numb.
They'll be numb for life.
He's in extreme pain
when he gets out of bed in the morning.
And my understanding was,
you had to sell your house because
you had a two story home
and you were having trouble navigating the stair wells.
I had fallen down the stairs a couple times
from my feet giving out, my legs giving out.
I never know when that's gonna happen.
The pain I get when I'm sleeping
is very intense.
Are you angry, Ron?
No, I keep my spirits up.
It's hard.
It's really hard.
When I think of this and go through this,
I get very emotional.
Angry at who? I don't know.
I am very thankful that I still have my life.
Am I angry at
what happened, and it could have been...
It shouldn't have happened?
It didn't have to happen.
Yeah, I'm angry at that.
I'm not
angry at nobody.
I just don't want no one else to go through this.
I would be angry if I seen a lot of people go through this.
It's just not fair to anybody.
You know, Jim, it was really hard.
I sat there for three weeks
and all I could do was hold Ron's hand and pray.
That was all I could do,
and none of it was necessary
for us to have to go through any of that.
We trusted that we were going to get
the medical care that Ron needed when he needed it.
And he didn't receive it.
To go through what we went through, you know...
Did you get bills for the medical care
that he received?
Did you get subsequent bills for that?
Yes.
Oh, yes.
I had to pay those before we got off the ship.
That was added onto our account.
Yes.
Mm-hmm.
You both have spoken about how
you don't wanna see something like this
happen to anyone else.
Obviously, you have your own claim
for what this has done to your family
and the expenses and the financial burden
that you're now going to face going forward.
But it's more than just dollars and cents for you.
Is that a fair statement?
CHRISTINE: Yes, it is.
Yeah.
Yeah, like I said,
when you go on vacation and you have your family,
the first thing you do is,
you don't look at how the medical help is gonna be.
You kind of assume, I would imagine,
that the price you pay for like,
a big cruise line, that it's all taken care of,
and you're gonna get the right help you need
if there's an issue with anything in health.
But...
I don't think people are aware of...
I don't think they're aware of really what's out there
and what's going on with that.
And it's a shame.
Because like I said, you're putting your life,
your family's life in their hands.
At risk. At risk.
You're counting on them to help you
if something goes wrong.
And it's not fair.
And they're not qualified to.
And you're right, that's what makes me mad about it.
You're right, I'm angry about something like that.
I'm not angry about what happened to me,
it happened to me,
but it makes me angry...
That it could happen to someone else.
That it could happen to someone else
or someone's kid or someone's family,
and it doesn't have to.
It shouldn't.
There should be better care.
The Radowski's have filed a lawsuit
against Carnival in Federal Court here in Miami.
Just as we did with Royal Caribbean,
we asked Carnival to provide someone
to discuss the Radowski case.
They said they don't comment on pending law suits.
We then asked if they would be willing to provide someone
to speak more generally about the quality of care
they provide on their cruise ships.
Unfortunately, they refused.
If Carnival or Royal Caribbean change their minds,
they are more than welcome to come back on this show.