(MENAFN- Caribbean News Now) By Youri Kemp
Caribbean News Now associate editor
MIAMI, Florida – Royal Caribbean cruises is bouncing back and moving full steam ahead after having lost a very damaging lawsuit this March brought on behalf of the family of a passenger that died of a heart attack after an initial misdiagnosis by Royal Caribbean's medical staff and the ship's overall lack of emergency protocols back in 2016.
The passenger, Richard Puchalski, died during a cruise with his family while celebrating his 70th birthday.
The jury in the case decided that Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd owes $3.38 million to the Puchalski family, with damages determined to be a total of $34,390.32 in medical expenses and an additional $4.8 million in loss of companionship along with pain and suffering. While the jury ruled there was negligence on the part of both Royal Caribbean and Puchalski, Royal Caribbean was judged to be 70 percent at fault; and as a result of that determination, the court ordered that Royal Caribbean must pay Puchalski's estate a total of $3,384,073.22.
Medical safety and security are a top concern for passengers looking to take the cruise vacation of their life. In 2017 another passenger died while in Royal Caribbean's care from complications due to diabetes, where the passenger's family claim in their federal court suit that "shoddy medical care" on board the Royal Caribbean vessel was at the root cause of Cynthia Braaf's death in 2017.
These medical incidents, coupled with numerous issues with non-fatal communicable disease outbreaks with the possibility of these outbreaks turning fatal, in addition to a series of slip and fall incidents that have resulted in significant injury to passengers as well as death. A recent episode included a zip line death of 24-year-old, Igal Tyszman, which happened onshore on the Honduran island of Roatan back in December 2018.
Tyszman, while on the zip line operated by a contractor working with Royal Caribbean, collided midair with another zip line user and fell to his death. Tyszman nor his now widow, Shirl Frenkel, did not know at the time that the zip line experience offer promoted as a Royal Caribbean experience was sub-contracted out to the company "Extreme Caribe Zip Line Tour" (COMPN) when the couple booked the zip line at the ship's excursion desk.
Tyszman's widow also filed a lawsuit in federal court against Royal Caribbean in the wrongful death of her deceased husband, which she is looking for over $1 million in damages.
All these incidents onshore and aboard Royal Caribbean ships, including passengers falling overboard in the recent past, have plagued the cruise line industry and Royal Caribbean is no exception, being touted as the largest single cruise line business in the world.
Along with onboard accidents, illnesses and fatalities, onshore incidents are increasing as well as cruise lines are now entirely in the business of creating their stops and destinations in the Caribbean. Cruise lines are buying private islands, and remote sections of the Caribbean and Central American real estate to develop these areas to create their own branded onshore escapes and experiences for passengers.
However, all these terrible incidents, including a near-fatal onshore accident in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in February, have not stopped Royal Caribbean in its expansion and push to raise the standard of cruise ship experiences and providing for better, more eye-catching destinations onshore and on board for passengers.
For the 2020-2021 season, Royal Caribbean International is introducing a combination of diverse offerings throughout the Caribbean, from new ship pairings in major homeports across Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico to a more diverse range of itineraries.
Royal Caribbean's Adventure of the Seas will be homeported in Texas for the first time in 2020 on four- and five-night cruises while visiting Costa Maya and Cozumel, Mexico.
The Adventure of the Seas will join another Royal Caribbean ship, the Liberty of the Seas, which will be sailing on seven-night Caribbean cruises year-round from Galveston, Texas.
The Enchantment of the Seas will reportedly sail south for the winter to the homeport in San Juan, Puerto Rico, for the first time in 2020.
The Enchantment will be sailing seven-night cruises to the Eastern and Southern Caribbean, from the beaches of Barbados to the lush mountains of Dominica.
These, along with several other exciting cruise offerings, will be topped off with significant real estate and amenity developments in The Bahamas. Also, new and enhanced venues for their private island, CocCo Cay in The Bahamas, to Royal Caribbean eyeing the purchase of a significant portion of real estate on the luxury island of Paradise Island, which can be accessed from the central island of New Providence by bridge, for the creation of a new stop for their vessels.
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