Passenger sues Celebrity Cruises for allegedly using blood transfusion from HIV donor

A woman who travelled on a Celebrity Cruises trip in the winter is suing the cruise line for allegedly giving her a blood transfusion to treat a medical emergency onboard that came from a person with HIV, court documents reveal.

TMZ, who first reported on the court documents, reported that the lawsuit brought forward by the unnamed woman alleges that after being treated on board the cruise she later, without specifying when, tested positive for the virus.

On 4 December 2021, the woman left for a seven-day cruise, the court documents say. By the fifth day of the vacation, she began to feel unwell and sought treatment at the boat’s medical centre after she was suffering from severe rectal bleeding.

Doctors on the ship diagnosed her with a gastrointestinal hemorrhage and told her that she’d require an emergency blood transfusion to survive.

The federal lawsuit said, according to TMZ, that the medical staff onboard then made an announcement over the boat’s speaker system to make a plea that they required Type A-negative blood for the woman.

In the suit, it relays that four individuals stepped forward and the doctors then delivered the life-saving transfusion to the woman and were then able to stop the bleeding.

Later, she alleges, she tested positive for HIV and has accused the cruise line of not taking enough precautionary steps in screening the blood before it was pumped into her veins.

The passenger, who claims the staff’s alleged carelessness is to blame for her recent diagnosis, is suing for unspecified damages.

The Independent has reached out to Celebrity Cruises for comment.

Almost 38 million people around the world live with HIV and though the virus is not curable, with proper treatment from strong antiretroviral drugs most people can go on to live long and healthy lives, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.