A CRUISE ship passenger’s body was left to rot for a week after he died, a family onboard the boat claims.
The 78-year-old victim, Robert L Jones, died while on board the Celebrity Equinox last August.
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The Florida family are suing the company over claims they put Jones in a drink cooler after his death which resulted in severe decomposition.
Suffering from heart complications on August 15, the victim later died from cardiac arrest and was allegedly meant to be stored in the ship’s morgue for six days until docking in Florida, said Jones’ wife Marilyn.
But upon seeing the state of the body after nearly a week, the family doesn’t believe it was kept in the morgue and are now suing the cruise line.
The lawsuit states that after the 78-year-old’s death, Marilyn was given two options for what could be done with her husband’s body.
According to the lawsuit, the options included having “Mr Jones’ body removed from the ship in San Juan,” Puerto Rico, or to “have his body stored on the ship until it reached port in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, approximately six days from the date of his passing”.
The body of the man was kept on board the cruise ship for “approximately six days,” according to the lawsuit.
Marilyn and the couple’s daughters – Robin Phillips and Teresa West – have alleged that they were urged to keep the body on the ship instead of having it removed during the stopover in Puerto Rico.
The cruise line allegedly told the family that they had a fully-equipped morgue on board the ship that was prepared to deal with the passenger’s death.
But after the family agreed to this plan, they were met with a shocking turn of events.
“When the funeral services employee in Ft. Lauderdale was brought onto the ship to retrieve Mr Jones’ body, his body was not located in the ship’s morgue,” the lawsuit said.
“Instead, Mr. Jones’ body had, at some time not yet known, had been moved from the ship’s morgue to a cooler on a different floor than the ship’s morgue.
“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,” according to the lawsuit.
It also says the body was discovered “in a bag on a palette on the floor of the cooler”.
This is said to have led the body to being so badly decomposed that the family felt they couldn’t have an open-casket funeral.
The family now believes that the morgue on board the cruise liner was not working correctly, and that they weren’t notified of the decision to relocate their relative’s body.
The lawsuit states that Celebrity Cruises has experienced deaths on board in the past and should have had the means to store the body correctly.
Now, Marilyn, her daughters, and even her grandchildren are asking for compensatory damages amounting to around £800,000 and are demanding a trial by jury.
The Sun has contacted Celebrity Cruises for comment.
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