8th cruise ship crew member dies of injuries from blast
By Associated Press
Published June 23, 2003
MIAMI - An eighth crew member has died of injuries suffered during an explosion in the boiler room on a docked cruise ship.
Longtime cook Rolando Tejero, 43, died late Friday at Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital, a Norwegian Cruise Line spokeswoman said.
"It was a long fight, and he finally succumbed to the terrible scalding he received," said attorney William Huggett, who has filed multimillion-dollar lawsuits on behalf of crew widows.
He said Tejero's widow, Corazon, would not comment.
"She was there and watched him die," he said.
Norwegian spokeswoman Susan Robison said that Tejero's body would be shipped back to the Philippines and that the cruise line would pay for the funeral.
National Transportation Safety Board investigators might take more than a year to issue a report on the explosion May 25 aboard the 1,035-foot liner.
Eighteen crew members were injured, and three remain hospitalized.
