"Took Chunks of My Child’s Skin Off" — Toddler Injures Hand in Carnival Cruise Elevator Door

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, I’ve developed a fear of cruise ships — I just can’t imagine being one of those people who got stuck on board, got sick, and had no proper treatment or supplies. And while that thought will always haunt me, so will this story about a toddler whose hand got trapped and subsequently injured in an elevator door on a Carnival cruise, bleeding profusely all over his father and the floor.

According to his mom, the medical staff’s care was anything but professional — and to make matters worse, they were charged over $500 for it. Here’s what happened on their February 2025 cruise.

Emily Lee (@emilyclairelee), a mother of two — and someone who will likely never step foot on a Carnival cruise again — shared a TikTok on March 4, 2025, detailing the traumatic experience her family, particularly her toddler, endured aboard the Carnival Panorama on Feb. 28, 2025.

According to Emily, the family was exiting the elevator when her son braced himself while stepping out. That’s when, she says, "his fingers were then sucked in between the door and the frame of the elevator." In another TikTok, she explained that he was simply catching his balance.

Emily explains that the elevator doors didn’t have the standard rolled aluminum edges but instead featured a metal flange or seam covered in Scotch tape, leading her to believe, "this has been an issue before." She continued, "We believe that the edges of the metal flange are what took the chunks of my child’s skin off of his fingers."

Making matters worse, she says the elevator lacked sensors to release his fingers. It sounds like the door then proceeded to close on the child’s hand, as Emily claims her husband had to pry the door open from the frame so she could pull their son’s hand free.

Once they freed the boy's hand, he was "bleeding profusely." Emily says her husband applied pressure to stop the bleeding, leaving him covered in their son’s blood, which also spilled across the elevator floor. Bystanders rushed to help, and she asked them to bring towels to assist with applying pressure to his hand.

Emily then used the phone in the elevator lobby to call the emergency number for the medical department on board. Thankfully, a crew member happened to be walking by and guided them to the medical department through the crew station.

Once there, the child's hand was X-rayed and he was given what Emily described as "off-brand Tylenol." They were then told they had to wait about an hour for the medicine to take effect before seeing the doctor.

When the doctor finally arrived, he refused to stitch the child's hand, saying it would be "too traumatic." Instead, Emily says, "Finally, he superglued my toddler’s fingers and then wrapped them in what looked like an iodine-soaked gauze and then put a splint that was about 2 inches too long for my child's hand."

The family was then asked to sign discharge papers, but Emily says she was never shown the actual documents. Instead, she was simply asked to sign an electronic signature pad and was told she was only signing discharge paperwork, not anything related to billing or charges for her son’s treatment.

Later, she noticed that the security officer she had spoken with earlier — along with another crew member — was inspecting the elevator door. Emily claims they were using "what looked like an Allen key shoved in the door." She also pointed out that the blood from the incident was still there more than 24 hours later.

To make matters worse, the couple later discovered a $506 charge had been added to their account for the medical care their son received. While Emily initially wasn’t getting any help from the cruise line following the incident, she later shared on TikTok that Carnival eventually reimbursed the $506.