Less than four days after embarking on a cruise off Mexico's Pacific Coast, Dorothy Jones flew home alone after watching her husband die in a Mexican clinic.

Now, one year after Donald Jones' death, his 65-year-old widow is accusing Norwegian Cruise Lines and two of its doctors of negligence and malpractice for sending Jones ashore to seek medical help after he fell ill onboard.

The cruise ship continued its path toward Acapulco, while the Canadian couple waited on land for a supply of blood to thaw for a transfusion. But Donald Jones, who celebrated his 65th birthday on the cruise, died from blood loss before the procedure could begin.

In the $20 million wrongful death suit, Dorothy Jones, who lives in British Columbia, also accuses the defendants of negligent infliction of emotional distress. She claims cruise officials brought her and her husband to land in a life raft and left them to fend for themselves among non-English speakers.

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"They dropped them in the Pacific Ocean in the middle of the night and took them to a little village with no representative from the cruise line," said Ira Leesfield, Jones' Miami-based lawyer. "[Donald] was her whole life. Not only did he die, but he died in front of her while she watched helplessly."

Leesfield said the couple of 40 years was on a break from their work as missionaries when they boarded the Norwegian Star on April 14, 2005, in Los Angeles.

The next morning, Donald Jones woke up nauseated and in excruciating abdominal pain, presumably from something he ate, Leesfield said. His condition deteriorated, and by the following evening, he was vomiting blood and his blood pressure dropped significantly.

At around 2 a.m. on April 17, the ship's doctor informed Dorothy Jones that her husband would not make it to the ship's next dock in Acapulco without a blood transfusion.

The suit claims that cruise officials sent the couple on an hour-long life raft voyage to the town of Lazaro Cardenas, about 70 miles from Acapulco, after the ship's physician, Wouter Morkel, conferred with the fleet's physician, Benjamin Shore, in Miami.

"I've never heard of a case where a ship takes a dying man off the cruise and leaves him ashore," Leesfield told Courttv.com. "All he needed was a transfusion, but they put him on a life raft and left him there because they didn't want to lose time."

Though the couple was promised that blood for a transfusion would be waiting for them upon their arrival, they soon discovered that they had to drive to the town's hospital, which the suit describes as a "makeshift facility" with dim lighting and beds that did not fully recline.

As they made their way to the hospital, Dorothy Jones claims she heard a voice over a radio ask if a representative from the ship was staying with the couple.

"The response over the radio was, 'No, there are 2,000 people waiting to get off in Acapulco, and they have tours booked,'" the suit alleges.

Through its physicians, Jones' suit accuses the Bermuda-based cruise operator of several negligent acts, including failure to provide proper medical treatment or ensure proper protocol was in place for passengers who leave the ship to obtain medical attention shore-side.

Calls for comment to the Bermuda-based operator were unanswered by press time. The company's operations are headquartered in Miami.

Leesfield characterized the incident as "life-altering" for Dorothy Jones, and said that policy change was more important to her than monetary compensation.

"She is very upset about the cruise line's lack of procedure, lack of judgment and indifference toward her and her husband. They even billed her for the medical expenses onboard," Leesfield said.

"They traveled all around the world helping the disadvantaged, building homes and improving communities. Then they took a break for this cruise and it resulted in his death."