Newspapers in Norway and Germany reported that the police in Berlin has arrested a cruise ship employee impersonating a doctor.
In an article titled "Fake Doctor Treated Hundreds of Cruise Passengers," the German newspaper Aftenposten says that a 40 year old man was arrested in Germany after flying from Miami yesterday to join an AIDA cruise ship. He had been working on cruise ships in the Caribbean, after falsifying documents in order to claim that he was a doctor. He was actually educated as a nurse but had he had worked as a ship doctor for five years the newspapers suggest.
A German newspaper Berliner Morgenpost also covered the story and says that the so-called doctor falsely claimed that he specialized in anesthesia and intensive care.
Carnival-owned Aida Cruises offered no exploration why it hired someone with no medical school education or credentials. The cruise line obviously did not conduct a thorough pre-employment background check. It also potentially compromised the heath and well-being of hundreds of passengers and crew members. It also raises the issue whether adequate background checks were performed on other cruise employees.
The strange thing about the articles is that neither the supposed ship doctor nor the Aida cruise ship were identified.