Hazardous Cruise Ship Doors Lead To Severe Passenger Injuries
Today we take a look at another case that was caused by a cruise company’s negligence. This case resulted from hazardous heavy doors that Carnival Cruise Line uses on its ships. In high winds these doors may move or suddenly close, injuring passengers in a number of ways including causing people to fall over and become injured from the fall.
The following is an excerpt from the complaint that Hickey Law Firm, P.A. filed on behalf of our client:
“Because of CARNIVAL’s negligence with respect to the dangerous condition of the doors, door frames and door components, the door slammed and trapped [The Plaintiff’s] left foot. On June 4, 2019, at approximate 9:30 p.m., [The Plaintiff] and her friend decided they wanted to go out on the open deck of Deck 7 for fresh air before going to bed. [The Plaintiff] and her friend were staying in cabin 7442, an interior cabin.[The Plaintiff] and her friend had been in the interior of the ship for 5 hours and had no way of knowing how windy it was outside. [The Plaintiff] and her friend headed towards the exit, near cabin 7208. [The Plaintiff] was in the front and her friend was following behind.
At the exit near cabin 7208, passengers had to go through two doors in order to get to the open deck on Deck 7. The first door opened to a carpeted area with another door that would lead to the open deck of Deck 7. In the carpeted area, [The Plaintiff] went to open the door to access the open deck of Deck 7. There were no signs on the door stating that passengers were not permitted to use the door to access the open deck. In fact, the door was labeled with an “Exit” sign. As [The Plaintiff] stepped through the threshold, the door to slam shut on [The Plaintiff’s] left foot, causing her to fall backwards, hitting her head on the door frame. This also caused her friend to fall back on the ground. [The Plaintiff’s] foot was trapped in the door and the door had shut. The friend removed [The Plaintiff’s] left foot from the shut door and the foot began to immediately swell. There was also a laceration on [The Plaintiff’s] left heel. [The Plaintiff] also suffered a laceration to the back of her head when door slammed shut trapping her foot and pushing to the ground.
[The Plaintiff] then attempted to sit up and placed her head on the wall. The laceration on [The Plaintiff”s] head left blood on the wall where [The Plaintiff] had rested her head on the wall. [The Plaintiff] could not walk and was feeling nauseated. A couple in a room nearby came out of their cabin, saw what was going on and the woman ran back to her room to call the ship’s emergency number. It took approximately 45-minutes for a crew member to arrive with a wheelchair to take [The Plaintiff] to the infirmary on board the Carnival Magic.
An X-Ray was taken of [The Plaintiff’s] foot and ankle in the infirmary on board the Carnival Magic. The male crew member in the infirmary stated there was no fracture. The Ship’s doctor put four stitches in the laceration on [The Plaintiff’s] left foot and then put a soft cast on the foot. The laceration on [The Plaintiff’s] head also required stitches. The Ship’s doctor shaved the area on [The Plaintiff’s] head where the laceration was. Following that, the Ship’s doctor injected four to five shots in the area to numb it in order to put four stiches in the laceration on [The Plaintiff’s] head.
On June 7, 2019, the Ship’s Doctor called [The Plaintiff’s] cabin to request that [The Plaintiff] visit the infirmary to review the notes from the incident. However, when [The Plaintiff] arrived at the infirmary, the Ship’s Doctor advised [The Plaintiff] that her ankle was in fact broken. The Ship’s Doctor advised that she had received the radiology report that stated there was a fracture. [The Plaintiff’s] left foot was then casted, and she was provided crutches.
On June 11, 2019, [The Plaintiff] had an open reduction and internal fixation to repair the medial malleolus fracture in her left ankle. Hardware was used to repair the fracture in [The Plaintiff’s] left ankle, specifically two screws were installed. [The Plaintiff] suffered and will continue to suffer severe, debilitating, and permanent injuries.”
Attorney John H. (Jack) Hickey and his team handle a wide range of cases, including but not limited to cruise ship accidents, admiralty and maritime accident cases, medical malpractice, wrongful death, premises liability, railroad accidents and car accidents. We represent victims from all over the nation, the world and the state of Florida.