It’s an unfortunate fact of life that some people die while they’re on vacation. Of course, when something like that happens on land, the deceased can be brought to a local morgue until plans can be made for the remains to be transferred to wherever the loved ones would like.
The same things happens if someone dies while on a cruise. Cruise ships indeed have morgues on board; the larger the ship, the larger the capacity of said morgue (according to Thrillist, larger cruise lines typically have enough room for 6 to 10 bodies). It’s never a happy situation when someone dies on a cruise ship, but since cruises function as tiny cities, they’re usually prepared for the situation and know what to do.
Except when they apparently don’t.
Marilyn and Robert Jones were both in their late 70s and had been married for 55 years. The couple boarded the Celebrity Equinox cruise ship on Aug. 13, 2022, with plans to visit Puerto Rico, St. Maarten, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands for 8 days, before arriving back at the port in Fort Lauderdale.
Unfortunately, two days into their cruise, Robert, aged 79, died of what was described as a “cardiac event.”
According to a lawsuit filed this week, the crew of the Equinox gave Marilyn a choice upon Robert’s passing:
- Have her husband’s remains removed from the ship in San Juan, Puerto Rico. This would involve her accompanying his body while the ship left them behind. She would then be 100% responsible for getting transportation for both her and her deceased husband back to the U.S. mainland.
- Let the cruise ship preserve Robert’s body in the ship’s morgue until they returned to Fort Lauderdale, six days later.
According to the lawsuit, crew members strongly encouraged her to choose the latter. They allegedly cautioned her that the coroner’s office in San Juan might want to take possession of the body and perform an autopsy before they’d be willing to release it to a funeral home (at which point the remains could be transported to the mainland). Cruise staff also assured her they could keep the body preserved in the ship’s morgue until they got back to Florida, the suit alleges.
So she chose the latter; staying on ship with Robert’s body remaining in the morgue.
The Equinox arrived back in Fort Lauderdale on Aug. 21. According to the lawsuit, an employee from a local funeral home and a Broward County sheriff’s deputy boarded the ship to retrieve the body. The funeral home employee was prepared to receive the body from the morgue, bring it to their funeral parlor, then transfer Robert to a funeral home in Bonifay, Fla., where he and Marilyn lived.
However, Jones’s body wasn’t in the ship’s morgue. According to the suit, at some point during the cruise it had been moved to a cooler, usually used for drinks, on a different floor. And the cooler was not nearly cold enough to preserve the body (mortuary coolers are typically kept at somewhere around 36 to 39F. Drink coolers are usually kept at around 54 and 59F)
“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.
Also, the body was not located on a bed or a medical table. Instead, it was lying in a bag on a palette on the cooler’s floor, the complaint continued.
Jones’ body was so badly decomposed from not being stored in a cold enough environment that the funeral home staff in Fort Lauderdale weren’t able to salvage enough of his remains for a “suitable” open casket at his wake and funeral, which was the type of service the family had wanted, the suit alleges.
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.
Tom Carey, a lawyer representing Marilyn Jones and her family, said the crew of the Equinox shouldn’t have offered the morgue as an option if they knew it wasn’t working, and they should have known if it wasn’t.
“They know what’s on the ship. They know what works and doesn’t work,” said Carey. “And the captain is responsible. They all are, really.”
If Jones had known the morgue was broken, she would have disembarked in Puerto Rico, the suit states. Instead, she’s been emotionally destroyed by what happened, Carey said.
“She’s devastated,” he added.
Jones’ family – his wife, daughters and grandchildren – is asking for $1 million in compensatory damages.
H/T: Multiple
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