Royal Caribbean has been ordered to pay $3.38 million to the family of a passenger who died while on a cruise

Thomas Layer/Associated Press

Royal Caribbean's Explorer of the Seas ship.

• Royal Caribbean Cruises has been ordered to pay $3.38 million to the family of a passenger who died on one of the company's ships, The Miami Herald reports.
• The passenger, Richard Puchalski, reportedly died of a heart attack on Royal Caribbean's Explorer of the Seas ship in 2016.
• A federal jury in Miami reportedly ruled on Thursday that Royal Caribbean and Puchalski's doctor were negligent after Puchalski reported shortness of breath to the ship's medical staff.
• Royal Caribbean did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment, but a company representative told The Miami Herald that the company disagrees with the ruling and plans to appeal it.

Royal Caribbean Cruises has been ordered to pay $3.38 million to the family of a passenger who died on one of the company's ships, The Miami Herald reports.

The passenger, Richard Puchalski, reportedly died of a heart attack on Royal Caribbean's Explorer of the Seas ship in 2016. The lawsuit filed against the company in federal court reportedly said Puchalski had gone to the ship's medical staff and reported shortness of breath. A ship doctor reportedly diagnosed Puchalski with a septal infarction, a piece of tissue between the heart's left and right ventricles that has died or is decaying, and gave him medicine before releasing him from the ship's infirmary.

Read more: A lawyer warns of a legal nightmare you can face on a ship.

The lawsuit reportedly said the doctor should have alerted Puchalski's family about his condition, run additional tests, or taken him to an on-shore hospital.

Puchalski reportedly collapsed around 30 minutes after leaving the infirmary and died four days later. The suit reportedly claims that a long interval passed between Puchalski's collapse and his arrival at an on-shore hospital.

A jury in Miami reportedly ruled on Thursday that Royal Caribbean and Puchalski's doctor were negligent and awarded Puchalski's family $3.38 million.

Royal Caribbean did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment, but a company representative told The Miami Herald that the company disagrees with the ruling and plans to appeal it.

• Have you worked on a cruise ship? Do you have a story to share? Email this reporter at mmatousek@businessinsider.com.

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