Jury Awards $1 Million to Celebrity Cruise Crew Member

A Miami Jury Found Celebrity Cruise Line Negligent in its Care and Treatment of its Employee and awarded a $1 Million verdict.

Miami, November 21, 2011 – Attorney Ervin A. Gonzalez obtained a $1 Million Dollar jury verdict against Celebrity Cruises for crew member Shaleesh Buttoo, who underwent unnecessary surgery to insert a pacemaker.

Mr. Buttoo was an employee of Celebrity Cruises. Celebrity Cruises flew the 31-year old chef from Europe to Santo Domingo, via the U.S., after he complained of severe headaches and pain to his face while working on a Celebrity cruise ship. He was told that he had a heart condition and immediately underwent surgery to have a pacemaker inserted. For months following the surgery, Mr. Buttoo continued to have symptoms and suffered debilitating injuries, forcing him to use a walker. Mr. Buttoo took it upon himself to see a doctor in the United States, where he learned that the cause of his headaches and facial pain was a sinus condition and not his heart. He underwent a second surgery in Miami to have the unnecessary pacemaker removed.

Gonzalez argued that Celebrity Cruises sent his client to Santo Domingo to save money on medical costs, rather than sending him to a qualified doctor, and that as a result, he was misdiagnosed and harmed from the unnecessary pacemaker. The jury agreed and awarded Buttoo $1 Million.