TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Man Put Ashore During Cruise Celebrating His 89th Birthday

ADVERTISEMENT

By KEITH MORELLI, The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 5, 2008

TAMPA - Jack Clevenger didn't feel that bad.

But Carnival Cruise Lines put the 89-year-old Ruskin man ashore on a Honduran island anyway, saying he'd be better able to get medical care there than on the ship Legend.

Clevenger was on a birthday cruise out of Tampa with his family.

He never did seek medical care on the island, saying he heard from a ship's nurse that the hospital might not be up to his standards.

Instead, he and his son, Roy, 63, scrambled to find a cab, a motel and then a way off the tourist island of Roatan.

They learned expensive lessons: Be careful what you complain about to the ship's doctor. And buy travel insurance.

"They treated us with utter disregard for our safety," Clevenger said. "If we hadn't have had a little bit of money with us, we'd still be in Honduras."

The ship's doctor examined Clevenger after his complaints of some blood from his mouth and in his stool. The doctor concluded he had internal bleeding, said Jennifer de la Cruz, a representative for Carnival Cruise Lines in Miami.

The vessel was about to embark on a two-day stint at sea, she said, and the medical staff thought it would be prudent to get Clevenger ashore or on a flight home.

"If Mr. Clevenger's condition deteriorated during those two sea days," she said in an e-mail to News Channel 8, "his life would potentially have been at risk as it can take an extended period of time to get a ship to a location with specialized shore-side medical facility and/or arrange a helicopter evacuation."

The father and son spent $2,500 and two days hopping three flights to get back to Tampa.

Clevenger, who so enjoyed cruising for his birthday he did it six times in a row, said he has had a change of heart after last week's shortened Caribbean adventure.

"That was probably the last one," he said. "Forever."

'It All Started To Turn Bad'

The trip started out well, said Haskell "Jack" Clevenger, a retired machinist and postman from Ohio.

Clevenger pointed to a photo of him seated in front of a birthday cake as a Legend waiter, Ivan, sang to him.

He spoke Tuesday from Manatee Memorial Hospital in Bradenton, where he checked himself in Sunday for tests. He said he feels fine and the minor bleeding that took him to the ship's infirmary had stopped.

"We had already planned next year's cruise," said Roy Clevenger, a Georgian who joined his father and three other relatives for what was to be a seven-day cruise to the Cayman Islands, Mexico, Belize and Honduras.

"I turned 89 and it all started to turn bad," Jack Clevenger said.

The birthday came two days into the trip. The next day, at Belize, his travel mates decided to head ashore.

That's when he noticed the blood.

The ship's doctor was not sure what was wrong, but determined it was a medical situation he was not equipped to handle, the son said.

The doctor said Clevenger should get off at the earliest opportunity and get medical help immediately or catch a flight home. Clevenger, saying he felt fine, got upset.

"I said I want to stay on this ship. I said I didn't want to go."

His son appealed.

"I begged the purser, just begged her to leave us on the ship," Roy Clevenger said. She said in medical situations, it was the doctor's call.

The ship continued from Belize to Roatan, a long, slender island off the north coast of Honduras that caters to cruise ships and tourists with its beaches and reef diving. There, accompanied by a cruise line employee, Roy and Jack Clevenger were put ashore.

"That's where they kicked us off," Roy Clevenger said.

He and his father left the ship, while the other three in the party were allowed to remain. "We're down here in foreign country. We don't know anything about it."

Roatanonline.com advertises Wood Medical Center as the island's hospital, saying it offers services including 24-hour emergency care. The Clevengers wanted none of it.

"We just wanted to get back to the States as soon as possible," Roy Clevenger said.

Cruise Line Suggests Insurance

It took two days. They booked one flight off Roatan to another Caribbean airport, then from that airport to Miami, and then from Miami to Tampa. They took a shuttle bus home to Ruskin, and then Clevenger checked into the Bradenton hospital.

"I'm sure there's a problem somewhere, but the cruise doctor just didn't want to be bothered with him," Roy Clevenger said. "It was easier just to kick him off."

De la Cruz said the ship's doctor told Clevenger to return home immediately and get medical attention.

"The potential for further internal bleeding made this a clear-cut situation wherein this individual was much better off on shore, close to a land-based medical facility or on a flight within a few hours of medical facility, versus in the middle of the ocean on a cruise ship," she said.

Travel insurance would have defrayed some of the costs of returning home, she said, and she suggested all cruise passengers get insurance when they book trips.

Clevenger said he usually does, but not this time.

"We regret that the family's vacation was interrupted and we do hope Mr. Clevenger is doing well," de la Cruz said. "However, he was asked to disembark the vessel for his own well-being."

Clevenger disagreed.

"It's a dirty, lousy trick to put us off like that."

News Channel 8 reporter Lynn Carson contributed to this report. Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760 or kmorelli@tampatrib.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT