TRAGIC

College Graduate Loses Both Her Legs in Cruise Nightmare

The 22-year-old was celebrating her college graduation when a happy moment turned tragic.

A college graduate had both of her legs amputated after a cruise to the Bahamas took a terrifying turn, a lawsuit alleges. Hannah Smith, 22, was on the first day of a Carnival Sunrise cruise when she and her friend, Brooklyn Pitre, 22, booked an excursion through the Carnival app that would ferry them to nearby Pearl Island from Nassau. Smith alleges that on the May 11 trip, she was served rum punch cocktails laced with sedatives by staff on board. On the return trip, while she was “grossly impaired and compromised,” staff recommended she jump into the water to relieve herself, having earlier told her, “the ocean is your toilet.” It was at this moment that the captain turned on the propellers, and she “felt her lower extremities being sucked under the vessel,” according to the complaint. Her lower left leg was immediately amputated, but she managed to escape using her right leg and with the help of Pitre, who pulled her up. Smith lost 60 percent of her blood in the harrowing incident and required 25 surgeries, during which they amputated her right leg. Smith’s lawsuit names the tour operators, Pearl Management Group and Sun Cay, for negligence and for inflicting severe mental and physical suffering. She is also suing Carnival for recommending the partner company as a safe tour operator. Pitre also alleges in a lawsuit that a bartender groped her buttocks. A spokesperson for Carnival told the Daily Mail, “Our thoughts are with Ms. Smith, and we wish her strength and healing. At Carnival Cruise Line, we continuously strive to keep our guest and crew safe as a priority.” The other two defendants have described it as a “tragic accident.”