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Stranded Cruise Passengers Get Help

Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.
Courtesy of Hasan Capraz
/
The Florida Channel
Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.

An elderly Clearwater couple stranded in Turkey has been showered with support from friends and strangers who learned of their nightmarish ordeal to get proper hospital care after an incident on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship, the Tampa Bay Times reports. Dodge Melkonian’s wife Jill credits a Turkish tour guide who donated his own blood, and the tenacity of travel agents back in Palm Harbor, for the eventual move to an American hospital in Istanbul. 

Originally founded in December 2006 as an independent grassroots publication dedicated to coverage of health issues in Florida, Health News Florida was acquired by WUSF Public Media in September 2012.