80 year old woman dies after being left behind

Jazzy1

Jazzy1

I Is A Turkey
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An 80-year-old cruise passenger in Australia was discovered dead after the ship left her behind on a tropical island, in what her family calls a "failure of care."

The woman was traveling alone on a 60-day, $52k voyage circumnavigating Australia aboard the NRMA-owned Coral Expeditions cruise ship when disaster occurred. A multi-agency investigation has been launched to determine how and why she was reportedly abandoned.

According to reports, Suzanne Rees, 80, was visiting the island a tour with the rest of the passengers when she didn't feel well. An employee told her to descend the mountain, unaccompanied. When she didn't make it back on the boat, no one noticed for hours.

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Hope the family sue the cruise company because the whole thing screams incompetence (who sends an ill elderly passenger to go down alone, which makes me wonder if there's only 1 person from the cruise during the hike) if they actually do a count, this wouldn’t happen.

What do you think?
 

Jazzy1 said:
An 80-year-old cruise passenger in Australia was discovered dead after the ship left her behind on a tropical island, in what her family calls a "failure of care."

The woman was traveling alone on a 60-day, $52k voyage circumnavigating Australia aboard the NRMA-owned Coral Expeditions cruise ship when disaster occurred. A multi-agency investigation has been launched to determine how and why she was reportedly abandoned.

According to reports, Suzanne Rees, 80, was visiting the island a tour with the rest of the passengers when she didn't feel well. An employee told her to descend the mountain, unaccompanied. When she didn't make it back on the boat, no one noticed for hours.

Continue reading article
Hope the family sue the cruise company because the whole thing screams incompetence (who sends an ill elderly passenger to go down alone, which makes me wonder if there's only 1 person from the cruise during the hike) if they actually do a count, this wouldn’t happen.

What do you think?
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I have two thoughts.

One is that after several incidents where cruise passengers were left behind while snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef you would think that accounting for everyone before leaving to go back to the ship would be second nature. Every teacher who takes children out on an excursion knows to count heads frequently and to call the roll at regular intervals.

My other thought is that allowing her to descend alone while feeling sick is tantamount to criminal.

I agree that just one escort is insufficient. $52K should be enough to allow for more staff in attendance.
 
If someone was feeling ill and you had to send her down alone because you couldn't leave the group, wouldn't you be checking on her the minute you got back down? I'm also surprised that no one in the group offered to go down with her.

Someone under the article commented, "poor life choices have poor consequences." I'm seeing that more and more. People are excusing themselves from feeling sympathy with that phrase, and it doesn't speak well for our world.
 
Della said:
Someone under the article commented, "poor life choices have poor consequences." I'm seeing that more and more. People are excusing themselves from feeling sympathy with that phrase, and it doesn't speak well for our world.
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Those crappy people are living under the delusion that they have control over their lives, and that they are not human like the rest of us are.

I don't think the lady made a poor choice. She wasn't feeling well and had to go back to the ship. It isn't her fault that the cruise line was terribly irresponsible.
 
Horrible to think of Suzanne Rees being left to fend for herself. Surely the guide could have at least contacted the ship to request that another member of staff attend to help Suzanne and make sure she got back to the ship safely or, if necessary, summon medical help? I really can't imagine how anyone could just leave her there without assistance.
 
I remember a young couple went to Australia to go scuba diving. The boat went miles out to where caves and a sunken ship were located. When the divers went into the water, they left their shoes on the deck. When the boat prepared to leave, one of the hands on the boat counted to make sure all the shoes were being used and they returned to shore.

The person counting the shoes must have been stonato (Italian word for dopey) because two shoes were left onboard after everyone departed the boat. This is when they realized that they left a couple out in the water. They rushed back out, but never located the couple, which were assumed drowned or taken by sharks.
 
Warrigal said:
I have two thoughts.

One is that after several incidents where cruise passengers were left behind while snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef you would think that accounting for everyone before leaving to go back to the ship would be second nature. Every teacher who takes children out on an excursion knows to count heads frequently and to call the roll at regular intervals.

My other thought is that allowing her to descend alone while feeling sick is tantamount to criminal.

I agree that just one escort is insufficient. $52K should be enough to allow for more staff in attendance.
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Cruise ship and children field trip are totally different. This senior lady is an adult. Where is her family if anyone is even concerned about her well being? Cruiseship is not an assisted living home. Passengers are expected to take care of themselves.
 
OldOld said:
Cruise ship and children field trip are totally different. This senior lady is an adult. Where is her family if anyone is even concerned about her well being? Cruiseship is not an assisted living home. Passengers are expected to take care of themselves.
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All ships are responsible for their passengers' safety and well-being. And if a cruise ship doesn't want the responsibility of 80yr-olds traveling alone, they should not sell them a ticket.
 
I wondered what the circumstances were when I saw this on the news. If she was feeling unwell, she shouldn't have been expected to descend the mountain alone. If there was no one to go with her, then perhaps more staff should have been assigned to that excursion. Also, I wondered if there was a way someone on the boat could have been notified so they could send a medical team (or at least a medic...maybe I watch too much T.V.). All excursion passengers should have been accounted for before the ship set sail.

When I first saw the story on the news, I wondered if the woman took any survival measures like looking for plants she could eat and sources of water. But reading the article makes me wonder if she was too unwell to do that. How terrible for her family.
 
Alice November said:
Smacks of neglectful and elder abuse. I would send someone with a 25 year old who was feeling ill and had to return, wouldn’t you?
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Yes, of course you wouldn’t send anybody alone if they weren’t feeling well to make their way back to the ship. I’m surprised a few other passengers didn’t volunteer to go back with her.
 
For some reason I am thinking that the cruise ship would be responsible and outline all the rules of a shore excursion including having to return on your own if you are unable to continue the tour. If she was feeling really ill, I am thinking no one in their right mind would abandon her.
 
Warrigal said:
I have two thoughts.

One is that after several incidents where cruise passengers were left behind while snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef you would think that accounting for everyone before leaving to go back to the ship would be second nature. Every teacher who takes children out on an excursion knows to count heads frequently and to call the roll at regular intervals.

My other thought is that allowing her to descend alone while feeling sick is tantamount to criminal.

I agree that just one escort is insufficient. $52K should be enough to allow for more staff in attendance.
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I've only cruised with large companies where the passenger counts are in the thousands, so they're well organized about accounting for everyone before leaving port. Passengers and crew must swipe ship IDs at monitored stations any time they leave or board ship. Crew members at those stations eyeball the passengers to be sure they match up with the photo their ID brings up on a computer screen.

Numerous loudspeaker announcements of (what are obviously) the names of missing passengers are heard ship-wide when it's departure time.

The Coral Adventurer had a passenger count of 112 — so they're a horse of a different color. In that context it makes more sense that a particular excursion might have had only one crew member to lead it, because ships tend to offer an assortment of tours at any given stop.

This is a terrible situation for all concerned, and undoubtedly heartbreaking for the woman's family. An autopsy may shed more light on her cause and time of death.
 
911 said:
I remember a young couple went to Australia to go scuba diving. The boat went miles out to where caves and a sunken ship were located. When the divers went into the water, they left their shoes on the deck. When the boat prepared to leave, one of the hands on the boat counted to make sure all the shoes were being used and they returned to shore.

The person counting the shoes must have been stonato (Italian word for dopey) because two shoes were left onboard after everyone departed the boat. This is when they realized that they left a couple out in the water. They rushed back out, but never located the couple, which were assumed drowned or taken by sharks.
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Yes. However, as far as I remember, there was another similar incident on the Barrier Reef.
 
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OldOld said:
Cruise ship and children field trip are totally different. This senior lady is an adult. Where is her family if anyone is even concerned about her well being? Cruiseship is not an assisted living home. Passengers are expected to take care of themselves.
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Cruise ships are considered "common carriers" which means they are absolutely responsible for their passengers' safe transportation.

Mrs Rees was not a person in need of assisted living, she was an active, healthy lady, experienced hiker and bush walker. Had someone assisted her to safety, she would not have been left behind to die. Had the crew members responsible took a head count, as is the correct procedure, Mrs Rees would have been missed early on, rather than hours later when she failed to arrive for dinner. Her age is not the issue here, it could have happened to anyone, of any age, who had the misfortune to be taken ill and abandoned.
 
OldOld said:
Cruise ship and children field trip are totally different. This senior lady is an adult. Where is her family if anyone is even concerned about her well being? Cruiseship is not an assisted living home. Passengers are expected to take care of themselves.
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There is still the duty of care to do everything possible to safeguard the passengers.

There was an incident where a cruise ship, the Oceanos, was sinking off the coast of South Africa. It fell to a member of the entertainment party to save the passengers. The captain just gave up.

The hero was a man named Moss Hills. He, his wife and other musicians climbed up to the bridge to radio for help and they were among the last people to be airlifted to safety.

oceanos sinking - Bing
 
Warrigal said:
There is still the duty of care to do everything possible to safeguard the passengers.

There was an incident where a cruise ship, the Oceanos, was sinking off the coast of South Africa. It fell to a member of the entertainment party to save the passengers. The captain just gave up.

The hero was a man named Moss Hills. He, his wife and other musicians climbed up to the bridge to radio for help and they were among the last people to be airlifted to safety.

oceanos sinking - Bing
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That's interesting @Warrigal it is not an incident I have heard of before. :)
 
OldOld said:
Cruise ship and children field trip are totally different. This senior lady is an adult. Where is her family if anyone is even concerned about her well being? Cruiseship is not an assisted living home. Passengers are expected to take care of themselves.
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what do you mean where is her family??

she was a healthy independent woman travelling solo on a cruise, she was taking care of herself - how were her family, far away at home, to be concerned or know what had happened until they were informed afterwards?
 
I went on a 10 day small group adventure trip like this years ago. There were only two guides. One couple was an 83 year old man and his sixty something girlfriend. The guides were constantly checking on where he was on the hikes and how he was doing. I heard them saying later they were surprised the tour company let him come, given his age and frailty. He was apparently wealthy and a former test pilot so I guess he talked them into it. Personally, I was concerned he could have fallen easily.
 

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