Cruise Line Failed North Shore Woman After Stroke At Sea: Lawsuit

HIGHLAND PARK, IL — The family of a Highwood woman who suffered a stroke on a cruise ship filed a federal suit against its operator Monday, claiming negligence and incompetence from Holland America Line led to an unnecessary 15-hour delay before she was provided adequate medical treatment.

Lila "Lisette" Kohn Gale, 65, was about four hours into a cruise from Fort Lauderdale to the Panama Canal on March 21, 2018, when she lost consciousness while having dinner, according to the suit filed on her behalf.

The ship's medical team reported Mrs. Gale was confused, drowsy and her speech was slurred, the suit said. She was taken to ship's medical center, where its senior doctor diagnosed her with a severe stroke. The doctor wrote she required a CAT scan and an urgent consultation with a neurosurgeon or neurologist and noted that her condition was deteriorating at the time.

At that point, "any reasonably prudent healthcare provider in Dr. Socrates Lopez's position would have known that a medical air-evacuation to a comprehensive stroke center was medically necessary," according to the suit.

But instead of an emergency airlift from a Coast Guard helicopter to a hospital in Florida, Mrs. Gale was loaded onto a tug boat around 11 p.m. and put on an hour-long ride to a hospital in Freeport, Bahamas. The hospital lacked a neurosurgery department, neurological specialists or a functioning CAT scan, according to the suit.

Though the doctor at the Bahamian hospital quickly decided Mrs. Gale needed to be transferred to a stroke center, the airport was already closed.

It would over 12 more hours before she arrived by air at Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale, as the bleeding in her brain continued to worsen and cause increasing permanent damage, according to her suit.

As a result of the stroke, she spent weeks in a coma and has been left paralyzed and in need of constant care.

"They had a duty to tend to her, and by not doing so, they added to her damage," said John Gale, Lisette's husband.

Gale, 68, said Holland America required him to arrange his wife's air ambulance transportation from the Bahamas at a cost of about $15,000. He also said the cruise line presented him with an itemized bill for more than $3,500 in medical expenses related to his wife's treatment on the boat.

"There's this boat with 1,700 people on it — all over the age of 65 — and they don't have a CAT scan machine? They don't have any evacuation procedures in place? They don't monitor whether the nearest airports are open?" Gale asked. "What the hell's wrong with you guys?"

Mrs. Gale is a native of Argentina who worked as a bilingual therapist. The Gales were married in December 2002 after meeting online earlier that year.

"I was floored by her," Mr. Gale said. "I knew pretty quickly I didn't want her to go away."

The couple enjoyed travelling together and had previously taken cruises to Alaska, the Arctic and the Panama Canal.

Though his wife has regained the ability to speak, she remains unable to stand and is not expected to be able to return home from the Highland Park nursing home where she now lives, he said.

The suit was filed by Mrs. Gale's son in Seattle, where Holland America is based. It said the ship, MS Zuiderdam, was only about 100 miles from the shoreline at the time of the incident, and described the cruise company's actions as "acts of shocking and appalling negligence and callous disregard for human life."

Holland America advertises that it is an "industry leader in cruise medicine" and "committed to providing the highest quality onboard medical care for ship guests and crewmembers and providing excellent first response and emergency care to passengers until they can be transferred to a shoreside medical facility," according to the suit.

Holland America is one of 10 cruise brands owned by Miami-based Carnival Corporation. The company has declined to comment on the lawsuit "out of respect for the family involved."

Sally Andrews, vice president of public relations for Holland America, has not responded to questions about the cruise line's policy for seeking air evacuations or contacting the Coast Guard.

Cruise operators are required to contact the Coast Guard when someone experiences a medical emergency that requires more than basic first aid, a spokesperson told the Chicago Tribune.

Coast Guard aerial evacuations are relatively common, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported, with two women rescued from Carnival ships last month alone and a man evacuated from 400 miles offshore on a Royal Caribbean ship.