Awful: Celebrity Cruises Let Body Decompose In Drink Cooler

Awful: Celebrity Cruises Let Body Decompose In Drink Cooler

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It’s not surprising that people die on cruise ships. After all, each ship has thousands of people onboard, and cruises are also popular with elderly people, so every once in a while people will pass away.

Ships have morgues for this very reason, and there are supposed to be protocols in place for handling deaths. Those protocols aren’t always followed, though, and Celebrity Cruises is now facing a lawsuit over how it handled a recent death.

Man died of heart attack on Celebrity Cruises ship

A widow named Marilyn Jones is suing Celebrity Cruises after her husband died of a heart attack on the 3,000-passenger Celebrity Equinox ship on August 15, 2022. The lawsuit isn’t about the death as such, but rather about how his body was handled after he died. This was a week-long roundtrip cruise from Fort Lauderdale, and the death happened one day into the journey.

According to the lawsuit, the 78-year-old widow was given two options by crew members when her husband passed away on the ship — her husband’s body could be taken off at the next port (in Puerto Rico), or it could stay onboard until the cruise concluded.

The widow decided to keep his body onboard, after being warned that she’d also have to get off the ship if her husband’s body was removed, and would have to figure out transportation to the mainland. Furthermore, she was informed that island authorities may have to perform an autopsy if the body were taken off there, which could also delay her return.

Gosh, I feel terrible for her situation. Not only was she grieving the loss of her husband of 55 years, but she was dealing with challenging logistics, especially as she was traveling alone at this point. I can appreciate not wanting to offload the body in Puerto Rico, where it would have probably been much more complicated, but the next six days of the cruise must have been rough.

Unfortunately what made matters much worse is what was discovered after the cruise.

Body was stored in drink cooler, not morgue

The widow is now suing Celebrity Cruises for $1 million. Why? Jones claims she was told that the body would be stored in a morgue until the ship got back to Fort Lauderdale, but unfortunately that’s not what happened.

When the ship returned to Florida, a funeral home employee and a Broward County deputy learned that the morgue on the ship was allegedly out of service, so instead the body was stored in a bag, inside a walk-in drink cooler, on a pallet.

The cooler was allegedly significantly warmer than the near-freezing temperatures needed to store the body, so remains were in “advanced stages of decomposition,” with the body being bloated and green.

According to the lawsuit, this caused the family “extreme trauma by visualizing Mr. Jones’ body horrifically decomposed, and knowing their husband and father was callously and casually left in a beverage cooler, stripping him of his dignity.” Furthermore, this meant the family was unable to have an open-coffin funeral, “which was a long standing family custom and was what his family had desired.”

Bottom line

Celebrity Cruises is being sued for $1 million over the handling of a body, after a passenger passed away. According to the lawsuit, the ship’s morgue was broken, so instead the body was stored in a drink cooler that wasn’t cold enough, leading to further decomposition. The widow wasn’t informed of this, and is furious. I don’t blame her — this is really shocking handling of a very tough situation, and the company should be held accountable, in my opinion.

Something tells me that this might settle outside of court…

What do you make of this situation?

Conversations (28)
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  1. BenjaminGuttery Diamond

    They better pay her out and fast. This is awful to hear, they should have informed her immediately after discovering the morgue was broken and immediately after the walk-in was discovered to be not cold enough. I wonder what food items were stored then served at improper temps???

  2. Brianair Guest

    “Get him a body bag!” just had a whole new meaning.

  3. Loretta Jackson Guest

    Sad how he died suddenly of a heart attack. Was this global warming? It actually is named as a cause for these things

    1. Max Guest

      Mainstream media has tried to cover up heart attack as a side effect of the Covid vaccine by falsely attributing it to climate change instead.

    2. foo blah Guest

      More BS. COVID vaccines do not cause heart attacks. Better put your tinfoil hat back on. The CIA is controlling your brainwaves again...

    3. Ben Guest

      What on earth are you talking about?

  4. Eskimo Guest

    Passengers should also file another lawsuit.
    A decomposing body in a drink cooler? That's the milk juice soda and maybe some food?

    But in a country where you can make millions because no one told you your coffee was hurt, or enduring pain and suffering for a few seconds before you die. I think $1M is crazy but reasonable in US lawyers' standard.

    1. Icarus Guest

      Remember the body found in the water tank of the Cecil Hotel in LA.

      Funny how in all these stories it comes down to money rather than an apology, investigation and perhaps a complimentary cruise for the widow and member of her family.

      Why a million ? Why not 500k or two ?
      I’m not sure if the liability versus that which exists under the Montreal convention for airlines.

    2. David Diamond

      And yet another person who bought McDonald's PR line hook and sinker. Maybe you should look into the Liebeck v. McDonald's Restaurants case before repeating what McD's PR would have you believe.

    3. Icarus Guest

      Am also familiar with that case. She claimed $20k etc etc

      If you read I mentioned airlines and the Montreal convention versus what how are shipping companies liable since there must be specific legislation.

      Anyhow Americans are the worst always looking for cash claiming emotional damages blah blah blah every which way they can. No doubt her lawyers will throw in discrimination somewhere.

      As I mentioned why $1million? Must come from somewhere...

      Am also familiar with that case. She claimed $20k etc etc

      If you read I mentioned airlines and the Montreal convention versus what how are shipping companies liable since there must be specific legislation.

      Anyhow Americans are the worst always looking for cash claiming emotional damages blah blah blah every which way they can. No doubt her lawyers will throw in discrimination somewhere.

      As I mentioned why $1million? Must come from somewhere eg costs.. unlikely to be loss of potential earnings etc.

      Someone probably said, try a million.

    4. David Diamond

      @Icarus

      I meant to reply to Eskimo, who was completely mischaracterizing the facts of the McDonalds case. No one "made millions", and it wasn't because "no one told her coffee was hot".

    5. Eskimo Guest

      @David

      You also mischaracterizing the facts of my post.
      You conveniently left out "or enduring pain and suffering for a few seconds before you die." part. That part that "made millions" as recently as Lucky Phounsy.

      But since you also want to characterize the McD case, her argument was coffee was too hot.
      In fact, there was already even a warning about the coffee being hot.
      So even with warnings, she managed...

      @David

      You also mischaracterizing the facts of my post.
      You conveniently left out "or enduring pain and suffering for a few seconds before you die." part. That part that "made millions" as recently as Lucky Phounsy.

      But since you also want to characterize the McD case, her argument was coffee was too hot.
      In fact, there was already even a warning about the coffee being hot.
      So even with warnings, she managed to spill her coffee, got burned, and trying to blame McD.
      Lucky for (I think it was) Ford, her lawyers decided you can't claim damages because cars have no cup holders for hot beverages.

      Still waiting for lawyers to represent overweight people to file a quadrillion class action on high fructose corn syrup.

      And I quote myself on the cruise line, "I think $1M is crazy but reasonable in US lawyers' standard."

    6. DLPTATL Guest

      That someone with the million dollar idea was almost certainly an unscrupulous personal injury attorney, who probably took the case on contingency. Most of the news outlets end the story with "the attorney representing the family is seeking a jury trial."

    7. Loretta Jackson Guest

      Yeah, some trailer park woman took a cup of coffee, threw it into her cooch, then cried on tv.

      We know the story.

      "i HaD tO haVe skIn gRaFtS" yeah that's what happens when you try to drink with the bacon purse and not the regular lips.

      Legend has it she's still trying to drink her Mt. Dew with her pus factory down there.

    8. Pudu Guest

      “Loretta”, you sound like a real piece of trash.

  5. David Diamond

    I sure hope I don't have family like DLPTATL and STEFFL. Apparently they don't really care if their loved ones' remains are thrown into a cooler and left to decompose.

    $1m doesn't even seem that egregious, especially given that it's likely to settle, and a big fine is supposed to deter similar behaviour in the future rather than let them continue doing the same thing and pass it off as "cost of doing business".

    1. DLPTATL Guest

      @David, I hate to break it to you but once you die you immediately start to decompose. If they were placed in a morgue they would have similarly decomposed for the next SIX days. There's a reason why bodies are typically embalmed within a day or two of death if a funeral with open casket is planned. There was a million dollar decision to be made - delay dealing with the body and continue on...

      @David, I hate to break it to you but once you die you immediately start to decompose. If they were placed in a morgue they would have similarly decomposed for the next SIX days. There's a reason why bodies are typically embalmed within a day or two of death if a funeral with open casket is planned. There was a million dollar decision to be made - delay dealing with the body and continue on the cruise or deal with the hassles of disembarking in PR and getting the body to a funeral home ASAP. Now there's a change of heart and a lawsuit...

    2. David Diamond

      I hate to break it to you but temperature and humidity affects the rate of decomposition significantly. No one is questioning that bodies decompose, you make it seem like all decompositions happen at the same rate.

      It doesn't matter what your subjective opinions of the plantiffs state of mind is, the fact is Celebrity grossly mishandled the situation, to deleterious effects.

  6. Richard Dickens Guest

    I heard it was a Blood Mary.

  7. DLPTATL Guest

    I'm sorry, but they should have had this planned in advance. I've cruised a number of times and it's not at all uncommon for a passenger to pass on the ship (or as happened on my last cruise on a shore excursion of 100% natural causes). Mrs. DLPTATL and I are both healthy and in our 40s but still have a "living will" of sorts between us about our wishes should we die at sea....

    I'm sorry, but they should have had this planned in advance. I've cruised a number of times and it's not at all uncommon for a passenger to pass on the ship (or as happened on my last cruise on a shore excursion of 100% natural causes). Mrs. DLPTATL and I are both healthy and in our 40s but still have a "living will" of sorts between us about our wishes should we die at sea. In this case it seems like the widow should have gotten off the ship with her husband in Puerto Rico. I understand not wanting to get off in a foreign country, but PR isn't a foreign country and 6 additional days of cruising certainly wasn't going to improve the condition of her husband's remains for the open casket funeral. The only possible validity to her case would be if Celebrity failed to disclose at the time that the morgue was offline. Even then, $1mm is absurd.

    1. Cam Member

      Do you work for Celebrity cruises or something? If the facts presented in the lawsuit are accurate, then they acted horrifically and should be held accountable. This isn't even getting into the health/hygiene aspects of storing a DECOMPOSING CORPSE in a walk in fridge, which presumably will be used to store items for human consumption.

    2. DLPTATL Guest

      @Cam, I get that placing a passengers' mortal remains in a beverage cooler is less than ideal, but when the morgue isn't functioning, it was probably the only place in which to store his remains that was refrigerated at a low temperature that didn't have food being stored. Again, Celebrity needed to disclose the lack of a functioning morgue to the widow timely in order for her to make an informed decision (which would have...

      @Cam, I get that placing a passengers' mortal remains in a beverage cooler is less than ideal, but when the morgue isn't functioning, it was probably the only place in which to store his remains that was refrigerated at a low temperature that didn't have food being stored. Again, Celebrity needed to disclose the lack of a functioning morgue to the widow timely in order for her to make an informed decision (which would have been to disembark in PR). It's clear from the story that the body was stored in a body bag, so I don't think it was putting anyone's keg beer at risk...

      All these frivolous lawsuits do is drive up the costs of everything, in this case, cruising.

    3. David Diamond

      Don't you think Celebrity should've informed her of that if such was the case? What next? Celebrity ran out of space so putting the body through a meat grinder to preserve space might be ok? Maybe space is running really tight and there's no refrigeration so might as well just start up a fire and give the deceased a free cremation on the nearest island?

    4. Brian Guest

      My father passed away on day 4 of a week cruise, taking his body off at the current port stop would have been handled by the local authorities who would be obligated to do an investigation and probably autopsy. We elected to stay on board (stored in morgue) and upon arriving to Miami, the police interviewed us and his body still was processed by the local coroner. Luckily the coroner accepted an interview with his...

      My father passed away on day 4 of a week cruise, taking his body off at the current port stop would have been handled by the local authorities who would be obligated to do an investigation and probably autopsy. We elected to stay on board (stored in morgue) and upon arriving to Miami, the police interviewed us and his body still was processed by the local coroner. Luckily the coroner accepted an interview with his home physician and waived the need for autopsy due to his known heart conditions.
      1) The woman was wise to stay on board with the body, you don't know if Puerto Rico's local government are efficient or organized. She would have had to wait who knows how long and then pay to get his body back to the mainland.
      2) I've been in this situation. You assume your loved one is being handled respectfully, not stashed next to the beer kegs. If they did not have functioning facilities to store the body, she should have been informed so she could make her decision.

      Ironically, we were billed for "in room" medical visits from the doctor and a nurse (two separate charges) when they came to the room to pronounce him dead. I was billed for the body storage and even for the body bag. Thankfully we had trip insurance that covered those costs

    5. foo blah Guest

      yet another reason not to go on a cruise! LOL!

  8. STEFFL Diamond

    . . . the country of lawsuits! :-o
    Many months later . . . it sure looks like the grief was not so present anymore?
    Let's hope the ENTIRE truth to this story becomes public, not just the HEADLINES of shockers.
    Tragic if true, but i wonder if Mr. Jones would be so happy if he knew, that the family is trying to make money after he passed, of what was meant...

    . . . the country of lawsuits! :-o
    Many months later . . . it sure looks like the grief was not so present anymore?
    Let's hope the ENTIRE truth to this story becomes public, not just the HEADLINES of shockers.
    Tragic if true, but i wonder if Mr. Jones would be so happy if he knew, that the family is trying to make money after he passed, of what was meant to be a happy Cruise vacation?
    . . . US at it's best!
    The publicity is NOW guaranteed, don't know of the passed Husband would have wanted that either?
    oh well . . .

  9. Ben T Guest

    I feel terrible for her and her family. We recently lost my dad and I wasn’t able to fly home fast enough to be at the hospital with the rest of my family. They let me see my dad the next day at the morgue before cremation. Seeing him resting gave me peace that he was no longer suffering or in pain and let me say goodbye. I’m sad the family won’t be able to experience the same.

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Brian Guest

My father passed away on day 4 of a week cruise, taking his body off at the current port stop would have been handled by the local authorities who would be obligated to do an investigation and probably autopsy. We elected to stay on board (stored in morgue) and upon arriving to Miami, the police interviewed us and his body still was processed by the local coroner. Luckily the coroner accepted an interview with his home physician and waived the need for autopsy due to his known heart conditions. 1) The woman was wise to stay on board with the body, you don't know if Puerto Rico's local government are efficient or organized. She would have had to wait who knows how long and then pay to get his body back to the mainland. 2) I've been in this situation. You assume your loved one is being handled respectfully, not stashed next to the beer kegs. If they did not have functioning facilities to store the body, she should have been informed so she could make her decision. Ironically, we were billed for "in room" medical visits from the doctor and a nurse (two separate charges) when they came to the room to pronounce him dead. I was billed for the body storage and even for the body bag. Thankfully we had trip insurance that covered those costs

7
Cam Member

Do you work for Celebrity cruises or something? If the facts presented in the lawsuit are accurate, then they acted horrifically and should be held accountable. This isn't even getting into the health/hygiene aspects of storing a DECOMPOSING CORPSE in a walk in fridge, which presumably will be used to store items for human consumption.

6
David Diamond

And yet another person who bought McDonald's PR line hook and sinker. Maybe you should look into the Liebeck v. McDonald's Restaurants case before repeating what McD's PR would have you believe.

5
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