The events transpired - based on the plaintiff's account of events - after she made a “sarcastic” comment about suicide while complaining on the phone to a receptionist about her room. It was the middle of the night of August 8/9, and, feeling very sea sick, she hoped she could move to a room less affected by the motion. The receptionist informed via cruise intranet phone that there were no rooms free that night and said someone could only be moved in a medical emergency, Ms Fanning recollected. Believing the woman was being sarcastic, Ms Fanning said she responded, sarcastically, by saying “there may be one tomorrow" and "there may be a suicide". Suicide prevention protocol The ship’s suicide prevention protocol was triggered on the grounds of the comments made by the passenger and security personnel arrived at Ms Fanning’s cabin, she further testified. She states she repeated “over and over” that her comment was not meant seriously, but the security team responded with a “repetitive mantra” that the “protocol was triggered”, she claimed. She and her daughter were subsequently brought to a room on a lower deck, she said. Cutlery and hangers were removed from the room and a female security guard was stationed outside, she said. She also claims her scissors were removed and replaced by a paper nail file. At about breakfast time the mother and daughter were twice brought to and from the ship’s medical centre in view of “hundreds” of other staring passengers, she added. Ms Fanning claims she was “stripped of her dignity” as they were not given an opportunity to change out of their pyjamas during the medical suicide prevention intervention and their belongings remained in the original room and they were given disposable toiletries. Although she had been told by the cruise staff that a medical clearance by a psychiatrist would lead to the protocol being revoked, she and her daughter were not free even though to her knowledge the psychiatrist who was consulted when the cruise harboured in two days said he would be recommending the protocol should be revoked. She said she was informed that the captain had in the end evoked his right to order a passengers to disembark the vessel and she was given access to a computer to book alternative accommodation.