HEALTH CARE ON CRUISE SHIPS NOT SUFFICIENT
If you're taking a cruise, you should be aware of the limitations of cruise-ship health care. For instance, many ships do not have defibrillators to restart hearts that have stopped beating. And if you think you can file a medical malpractice suit against a cruise ship, you need to think again. Shipowners are not liable for medical malpractice by the doctor.
That's according to Robert M. Jarvis, professor of law at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale. His speciality is travel law and he literally wrote the book on the topic, Travel Law: Cases and Materials. He also teaches travel law at the university's The Shepard Broad Law Center. It is the only law school in the country offering a course on the topic.
"The doctor is considered an independent contractor because the shipowner is not able to control what the doctor does. So the shipowner always gets off the hook and the doctor is always responsible for his or her own malpractice," says Jarvis.
To win a suit, you have to show the doctor acted in a way that fell below the standard of the industry.
"Then, even if you win, 99 percent of the cruise-ship doctors are from foreign countries. When the voyage is over, the doctor goes back to his country, then you have to go and try to find him. Even if you get a judgement in the United States, the doctor probably has no assets here and is out of the country, so you're out of luck," says Jarvis.
The only way a shipowner can be held accountable is if the on-board treatment facility is equipped below industry standards or if the cruise line hires an unqualified person--someone without valid medical credentials--as ship's doctor. ###
Editors: Jarvis is at 954-262-6172 (office).
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