Middleborough woman dies aboard cruise ship in waters off Florida

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

A Middleborough woman died aboard a cruise ship early Monday in waters off of Fort Lauderdale after falling down a staircase in what authorities believe was an accident.

Barbara Wood, 47, was leaving the Catacombs nightclub aboard the Royal Caribbean’s Liberty of the Seas at about 1:48 a.m. when she slipped on the stairs and hit her head, the Broward County Sheriff's office said in a statement.

She was taken to the ship’s infirmary where she was pronounced dead at 2:50 a.m., the statement said. Authorities do not suspect foul play.

An autopsy will be conducted to determine the official cause and manner of death, which occurred on the last night of a five-day cruise, the statement said.

Sheriff’s deputies met the ship when it docked at 5 a.m. at Port Everglades at Berth 25, according to the statement.

A spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office said that Wood was on the cruise with colleagues from her job, though she did not know where Wood worked.

In a statement, Royal Caribbean extended condolences to Wood’s family and friends.

“The ship’s medical facility provided initial care after her fall, but regrettably, [Wood] passed away while onboard,” the statement continued. “A member of our Care Team is providing support and assistance to [Wood’s] family and friends. Our thoughts are with [her] family and friends, and we will continue to do our very best to assist them.”

Cynthia Martinez, a spokeswoman for Royal Caribbean, said in an e-mail that the ship was traveling in international waters when Wood fell, but she could not provide an exact location.

She said the company could not speculate on what caused Wood to fall.

Martinez cited a company stewardship that is released annually to the public that said every Royal Caribbean ship has medical professionals available to respond 24 hours a day to emergencies, and that every ship’s infirmary is stocked with equipment including “cardiac monitors/defibrillators, ventilators, x-ray machines and processors, laboratory equipment (for a variety of acutely needed tests), and minor surgical and orthopedic supplies.”

The report said that each vessel also has “a well-stocked formulary of medications (including ‘clot-busting’ thrombolytics) that is based upon [American College of Emergency Physicians]-established, shipboard-appropriate categories of pharmaceuticals.”