Too hot on his heels
Burning cruise deck cost me a toe: suit
A vacationing Long Island man may no longer be footloose and fancy-free after burning his feet on the scorching deck of a cruise ship, a new $6 million lawsuit claims.
Three years later, Jeffrey Mizel is still suffering — and even had to have his big toe amputated — because of the burns he sustained aboard the Celebrity Silhouette, he charges in a Brooklyn Federal Court lawsuit he filed against the cruise line.
Mizel, 66, and his wife, Elizabeth, inset, were on a European cruise with friends in July 2014 when the ship docked in Greece.
“It was very hot, so I went off the ship and went right back on again,” he recalled. “I decided, ‘I’m going swimming.’ ”
Mizel, who suffers from neuropathy-induced nerve damage in his feet, used a golf cart to get around the ship and parked it near the pool, walking the 10 or 12 feet to the water.
At first, he didn’t realize any-anything was wrong.ng.
“Then my wife and our friend came, and they came in the pool withh me and said, ‘Man, wasn’t that hot?’ And I said, ‘I don’tt know,” and I looked at my feet . . . From toe to heel, the skinin was just hanging off.”
Because of his medical condition,dition, “he had no idea”dea” how hot the deckeck was, said Mizel’sel’s lawyer, Michaelel Goldman.
Mizel, a father of two and grandfather of four who works for an LED light manufacturer, was quickly taken to the ship’s doctor. The injuries were so bad, the cruise line offered to fly him to shore, he said, but he stuck it out to avoid ruining the trip for his wife and pals. Since then Mizel has struggled with infections and hospitalizations that eventually resulted in the loss of his toe. AAt one point, doctors even consideconsidered amputating part of his lower legleg, he said. Though he still works, Mizel was forced to take on a business partner to share the load and has to use crutches. He says Celebrity Cruises should have at least warned passengerssengers ababout the super-heated deck. “ThThere was no way to thinthink it would be that hot,” he said. “As a matter of facfact I took off a pair of shshoes and left them in ththe cart to go to the ppool. If they had just ggiven a hint that it was tthat hot. . .” Celebrity X Cruises declined to comment.