Celebrity Cruises Sued, Allegedly Gave Passenger HIV-Infected Transfusion

[patty1955]

https://www.tmz.com/2022/05/25/celebrity-cruises-sued-for-giving-passenger-hiv-infected-transfuion/

[Silkroad]

Hmmm. Less than 10% of the population has A negative blood (same for “universal donor” O negative) so I think she’s darn lucky four passengers were willing and able to donate blood to her. It sounds like she was told she wouldn’t have made it without the transfusion, and she seems to believe that. I doubt that Celebrity (or any cruise line) has the same ability to run screening tests on donated blood that a blood bank does, and they didn’t have much time if she was losing copious amounts of blood. 

 

Based on the TMZ story, there’s absolutely no proof that one of her donors was HIV positive. She could have been infected prior to the cruise. Anyway, it should be easy to ask the donors to get tested. Regardless, I’d imagine she signed forms acknowledging that she was receiving said emergency treatment because she’d otherwise die before reaching port.

Edited May 25, 2022 by Silkroad

[Gia2cats]

This story is unbelievable on so many levels.

First, she would have been taken off the ship by helicopter as an emergency.And medical personnel would have never relied on someone’s word that they were A negative, both the patient and the donor. You have to type and cross match before you can transfuse. Had the wrong type blood been given, the patient would have died.

I cannot imagine any doctor making so many mistakes. He would never practice medicine again.

[sasset]

TMZ's credibility is on the low side in general.

[mom says]

The old saying "no good deed goes unpunished " seems to be in full force here. At present this seems like a very one sided report. I'm not doubting she got a transfusion- that is too easily checked. And the med dept should have been able to do a type and cross. It's a simple test. But they would not have had the ability to screen for HIV or any of the other diseases that shore side blood services normally do. For this they would have had to rely on truthful reporting by the volunteer donors. And even then, it's possible that the donor in question was unaware of their HIV status. If the risks of an emergency transfusion were explained, and her consent was obtained, I don't see where she has grounds.  But, of course, in some places you can sue for anything and hope for a settlement just so the suit will go away.

 

 

[patty1955]

Honestly, I don't really believe the story. I can't imagine Celebrity transfusing anyone. Wouldn't they just have them evacuated? 

[mom says]

2 minutes ago, patty1955 said:

Honestly, I don't really believe the story. I can't imagine Celebrity transfusing anyone. Wouldn't they just have them evacuated? 

The article doesn't specify where the ship was at the time of the emergency. Were they within reach by helicopter? Was the weather sufficient for an air evacuation? Did her condition allow for a delay of X hours before receiving a transfusion? We know none of these details.

[Silkroad]

2 minutes ago, patty1955 said:

Honestly, I don't really believe the story. I can't imagine Celebrity transfusing anyone. Wouldn't they just have them evacuated? 

It’s not easy to do a helicopter evacuation from a ship. We don’t know if weather conditions were stormy or how close to land the ship was. Plus, if someone is hemorrhaging badly there isn’t time.

[jelayne]

The article doesn’t identify the ship but in December weren’t the ships Celebrity had in service  all cruising in the Caribbean?   We have seen an evacuation by helicopter in the rough seas so it is possible.  In the Caribbean there are options for the ship to get to land and air flight someone to a hospital. 

The skeptic in me says someone is hoping for a big payday, not necessarily the passenger. 

[songbird1329]

If this woman has an attorney, she and her attorney believe they have enough evidence to make a case.  Whether they do have sufficient evidence is a different issue.

[Michidoeme]

Having to choose between bleeding to death or being HIV infected ?

[journeymore]

8 hours ago, patty1955 said:

Honestly, I don't really believe the story. I can't imagine Celebrity transfusing anyone. Wouldn't they just have them evacuated? 

Idk. I don’t have any details but I was on the Apex in February and the captain made an announcement asking for blood for a medical emergency. He came on later and said they had enough donations. 

[gold1953]

9 hours ago, patty1955 said:

Honestly, I don't really believe the story. I can't imagine Celebrity transfusing anyone. Wouldn't they just have them evacuated? 

If you are bleeding to death you cannot wait for evacuation. Also Celebrity does on occasion request blood donations from cruisers for transfusions.

[Fly and Sail]

I can't imagine Celebrity or any other entity that asks for a blood donation would do so without handing a questionaire and indemnity form to the donor, asking for their medical history. The question of HIV would absolutely come up. Did the donor lie or wasn't there even a basic screening performed? Maybe the donor wasn't even aware!?

 

Not sure what regulations for blood donations apply on the ship. In the U.S., UK and Germany (plus many others) it's for example not at all permitted for someone who had same-sex relations in the past three months to donate blood irrespective of any diagnosis.

 

In Germany you're not allowed to donate blood if you've been even present for longer than 6 months cumulative in the UK during the time they had the BSE crisis 1980-1996.

 

 

 

Edited May 26, 2022 by Fly and Sail

[Fly and Sail]

38 minutes ago, gold1953 said:

If you are bleeding to death you cannot wait for evacuation. Also Celebrity does on occasion request blood donations from cruisers for transfusions.

 

If they do this routinely I'm sure they'd have a protocol how this transfusion process works including doing a basic screening of the donor. Even if the blood can't be properly analyzed (how complicated would that be?) a basic health questionaire of the the donor is the minimum.

 

Emergency or not, certain things are always done. I'm amazed they were able to help this lady at all on board. I'd love to know how they managed to stop the bleeding even during/post transfusion.

 

The Caribbean is hardly an area where medevac is impossible short of being in the middle of a hurricane.

[SeaWatch12]

The photo in the article depicts The Apex, I was on that December 4th sailing. 

 

The Captain did make an announcement that there was someone in the medical center in need of a blood transfusion and if anyone was willing to donate, to let guest services know. The next morning (final full day of the cruise) the Captain's announcement thanked all those who offered to donate. That evening it was announced that we were going to pick up speed in order to dock at Port Everglades to disembark the ill person to be taken to the hospital. About 9 PM we in fact docked at what appeared to be Pier 25 and an ambulance was waiting to pick up the ill person. We then went back out several miles and sat in the waters overnight till we came back to Port Everglades for the scheduled disembarkation in the morning. it was a beautiful December evening, I watched most of the sail in/out from the Magic Carpet. 

 

The article linked in the OP's post is the first I heard what the medical emergency was. 

[Luckiestmanonearth]

This just seems not believable.  In the first case, Cruise shops are not hospitals and have the blood supply for a full transfusion.  Hard to believe they would have the necessary personnel and equipment to carry out this kind of procedure .

Secondly, if I’m wrong about the above, you would think if they had the right personnel and equipment, they would have the right blood screening protocol to prevent bad blood from being tranfused.

 

I’m not buying this story

[Turtles06]

1 minute ago, Luckiestmanonearth said:

This just seems not believable.  In the first case, Cruise shops are not hospitals and have the blood supply for a full transfusion.  Hard to believe they would have the necessary personnel and equipment to carry out this kind of procedure .

Secondly, if I’m wrong about the above, you would think if they had the right personnel and equipment, they would have the right blood screening protocol to prevent bad blood from being tranfused.

 

I’m not buying this story

Please read the comments above as to what ships can and cannot do, including the fact that they can transfuse blood. And be sure to read comment 16, by a passenger who was on the ship. 

[graphicguy]

It's TMZ.  That tells you everything you need to know about the story's credibility.  That the Daily Mail picked up the story from TMZ and published it, tells you all you need to know about them as a source, too.

 

This is a whole lot of nothing!

[songbird1329]

I’m going to elaborate on what I said earlier…

 

 

 

The news articles indicate suit was filed in federal court.  A suit filed in federal court is subject to Rule 11 sanctions, meaning the party and her attorneys can be sanctioned by a court for filing frivolous litigation.  Which means that she has a good faith basis to believe that she acquired HIV from a blood transfusion administered aboard a Celebrity ship.

 

HIV is sometimes transmitted through blood transfusions.  It will be the plaintiff’s obligation to show, by a preponderance of the evidence, that her HIV was caused by the transfusion, and that proper medical screening would have prevented the transmission of HIV.

 

This is going to be an interesting case to watch.

 

 

[songbird1329]

48 minutes ago, graphicguy said:

It's TMZ.  That tells you everything you need to know about the story's credibility.  That the Daily Mail picked up the story from TMZ and published it, tells you all you need to know about them as a source, too.

 

This is a whole lot of nothing!

Um, TMZ is very gossipy, but it usually scoops other publications.  The story was also in the Daily Mail.  
 

This  media reported what appears in the court documents.  Your skepticism is unwarranted, the media only reported what the reporter read in the pleadings.
 

 As I said, it will be up to the woman and her attorney to prove the allegations in her complaint to the judge and jury.

[kk99]

I was on that December Apex sailing with friends. When the emergency announcement was made, 2 of my friends got up from the dinner table, as they are universal donors. I followed them down to where the  potential volunteers were signing information forms. My friends both had their blood registry cards with them. So many people volunteered, and then they took who they wanted off the list for those who would be a possible donor match. My friends were not asked to give blood,  but were asked to remain as backups if needed. (which they were not needed) The person could not have been evacuated safely per the medical team and the Captain or it would have been done in my opinion. No one, had a problem with the ship speeding up and coming into port early so that passenger's life could be treated further at the hospital. 

I never believe anything on TMZ in this case other than a lawsuit was filed. Whatever the actual facts are, it will come out in a court proceeding, with expert medical testimony. I wish the passenger who underwent the medical emergency all the best for the passenger's health, and thankful to witness the  immediate response by the passengers who could give blood to a fellow passenger in need.

[graphicguy]

TMZs and Daily Mail's credibility is, and always been, at best suspect.  As has been said, they're gossipy types of organizations.  They rarely deal in fact....only hearsay.

 

As far as lawsuits are concerned, anyone can file a law suit at any time, for anything, against anybody.  Filing a law suit does nothing to address the credibility of this story.

 

Again, sounds like a lot of nothing.

[alyssamma]

LOL, amazed at the TMZ hate on here. I am guessing people who are saying this either think of the TMZ from many years ago, or don't have first hand knowledge with it and are just passing on what they've heard.

 

Like @songbird1329 said, they are gossipy...like what is Kourtney Kardashian doing right now. *BUT* they have serious news stories too. For example, with the recent elementary school shooting they were the among the first (if not the first) to correctly give an updated death count. 

 

There are lots of sports stories (Kaepernick trying out with Raiders), politics (Beto O'Rourke interrupting the gov's speech), stories about what is being done to get Brittney Griner back from Russia.

 

So yeah, gossip for sure, but real stories too like *this* story *obviously* is since there are first hand accounts on this thread from people who were there.

 

Also surprised at how many people don't realize the full scope of medical capabilities of cruise ships. You do realize they often sail in the *middle of the ocean*, right? Like on a transatlantic voyage. They have to be able to treat serious illnesses and injuries because of this.

 

Lastly, according to @SeaWatch12 they didn't *cure* her on the ship, just stabilized her. They then sped to FLL to get her to a proper hospital.

[CruiserRob]

17 hours ago, patty1955 said:

Honestly, I don't really believe the story. I can't imagine Celebrity transfusing anyone. Wouldn't they just have them evacuated? 

We have been on two cruises recently where there has been a call for blood donors.