Cruise Travel: Elderly Man Put Ashore For His Own Good

You'd think by reading news accounts that big, bad Carnival Cruise Lines carelessly dumped 89-year old Jack Clevenger of Ruskin, Florida ashore for almost no reason. Okay, they did make him disembark their cruise ship on the Caribbean island of Roatan, but they had his health in mind, not cruelty.

It was during his birthday cruise that the elderly Clevenger reported to the ship's infirmary complaining of blood in his mouth and in his stool. The ship's doctor concluded he might be suffering from internal bleeding--a condition for which the medical facility onboard was not equipped. Rather than have him remain aboard and at risk of getting worse during two subequent sea days after the ship called at Roatan, the cruise ship doctor felt he would be better off seeking treatment at a facility ashore. Once in port, and without even examining Roatan's medical center for its suitability, the man and his son made arrangements to return to Florida.

Was he better off doing so or should he have been allowed to stay on the cruise ship with only a slim possibility of being evacuated quickly if his bleeding condition worsened? Clevenger apparently doesn't see his situation that way and is pretty mad about being sent elsewhere for medical treatment. He told the media, "It's a dirty, lousy trick to put us off like that." However, his life could have depended on the decision made by the ship's doctor.

Clevenger says he's feeling fine, and claims he was improving before leaving the ship, but a photo accompanying the Tampa Bay Online story shows him with an IV line and several ominous wrist tags after three days in a Bradenton, Florida hospital. We think it's a worse trick to take a cruise at age 89 without travel insurance. Clevenger might not be nearly so angry had he purchased it.