ms. butler, whether you have taken any legal action. know in your testimony that you have consulted with an attorney and he advised you as to where you had to file suit and some of the basics of the law in this area. i wonder if you have taken any legal action. >> yes, we have. we have the case. >> have they indicated to you that there are obstacles because of the law is structured? david versus goliath. >> passengers like yourself are as they on an island chairman indicated, passengers are not only on an island in the high seas but it is lawless. >> exactly. >> ms. dishman, have you taken any legal action? >> yes, i did. >> has your lawyer advised you the obstacles that are in your way because of the neck -- the inadequacy of the law? >> ice during several different challenges in regards to my case. me ask you the same question. i know you are an attorney so let me ask you whether you have taken legal action on behalf of your client. >> i didn't. . my client's case was settled for a handsome sum. just recently. i would comment on ms. b

ms. butler what happened to your mother may well have been avoidable.and unnecessary in this consequence and you have my special sympathy in that regard. so we are really trying to impose minimal protections on cruise ships and that's the purpose of the cruise ship passenger protection act. it imposes standards of decency, standards of minimal basic decency and fair dealing on cruise ship lines. i would like to ask you ms. butler whether you have taken any legal action and i know from your testimony that you consulted with an attorney and he advised you as to where you had to file suit and some of the basics for the law in this area. >> yes, we have. they have picked up our case. >> has indicated to you that there are obstacles because of the way the law is set? >> literally it's david versus goliath. >> passengers like yourself are not only on an island as the chairman indicated, passengers are not only on an island in the high seas but it's a lawless island. >> exactly. >> ms. dishman if i may ask you have you taken any legal action? >> yes, i did. >>

ms. butler whether you have taken legal action. i note in your testimony you consulted with an attorney, and he advised you as to where you had to file suit and some of the basics of the law in this area. i wonder whether you have taken any legal action. >> yes, we have. john arthur are eves and frank spagletti have picked up our case. >> has he indicated to you the obstacles because of -- >> death on the high seas, it's literally david versus goliath and we're david. >> in a sense, passengers like yourself are not only on an island as the chairman indicated, passengers are not only on an island in the high seas, but it's a lawless island. >> exactly. >> ms. dishman, if i may ask you, have you taken any legal action? >> yes, i did. >> has your lawyer advised you as to obstacles that are in your way because of the inadequacy of the law? >> yes, and i -- i experienced several different challenges and things that occurred in regards to my case. >> and ms. ware and mr. grisham, let me ask you the same question. i know you're an attorne

ms. butler whether you have taken legal action. i note in your testimony you consulted with an attorney, and he advised you as to where you had to file suit and some of the basics of the law in this area. i wonder whether you have taken any legal action. >> yes, we have. some attorneys have picked up our case. >> has he indicated to you the obstacles because of -- >> death on the high seas, it's literally david versus goliath. and we're david. >> and passengers not unlike yourself are not only an island as the chairman indicated, passengers are not only on an island in high seas but it's a lawless island. >> exactly >> ms. dishman, if i may ask you, have you taken any legal action? >> yes, i did. >> has your lawyer advised you as to obstacles that are in your way because of the inadequacy of the law? >> yes, and i -- i experienced several different challenges and things that occurred in regards to my case. >> and ms. ware and mr. grisham, let me ask you the same question. i know you're an attorney. let me ask if you've taken action

ms. butler.just for the benefit of the members of the committee, what she has been talking about in part is i would have to lose 60 years off my present life length and have a strip of strong glasses and probably a -- triple glass strong glasses and probably a magnifying glass to read what you're talking about. i gave it to bill nelson. too. getting older, you give up your -- >> you give up your rights. >> you give up your liability. you have no idea because you cannot read this thing. i am breaking protocol here and i apologize. you give things up, you don't know what. you can't possibly read this. you are kind of in a hurry. is the whole point. in this is the whole trip. so to

ms. butler. last year, they adopted what they call a passener 1y gerbil of rights. we've done that in the airline industry and we pretty much enforce it. one of those so-called rights is that passengers have the right to quote call full time professional emergency medical attention untilg shore side medical care becomes avamen. that's their language, not mine. my question to you is would you say that the medical care provided to your mother, you know, and the first iteration, it was full time, professional, emergency medical care. and then all of the sudden, it became competent medical care. so my question to you, was the care provided to your mother competent? >> no, they did everything wrong. we were expecting that one of the security guards would step forward to initiate cpr. instead, they waited at least ten minutes to even call for someone to come down and look at my mother's body to see if she was breathing or not. and then, in that case, you know, she was not breathing. she did not have a pulse. to top it off, the infirmary was closed. they had to set up thei

ms. butler's situation, i litigated a similar case for seven years regarding the aknocksic brain injury for a 26-year-old third-year medical student who collapsed on a treadmill on board the ship in the presence of the fitness center director, who took no steps at all to resuscitate her, and there was a factual dispute over the length of time she was down without any defibrillation, and already international treaties that require crew members to be trained in cpr and the position that the cruise lines take is the training is only advisory, they're not required to use it, and it's discretionary as to whether or not they want to use it and federal maritime law is that they're not legally responsible if they don't use it. and they didn't use it in this case, and this young woman who a a brilliant career ahead of her essentially lives the life of a vegetable today, with no recovery. >> thank you. ms. ware? >> yes, i have taken legal action i did not know by signing that ticket i was giving up all my rights according to carnival for compensation. >> mr. chairman, again my thanks for having this