Passenger Graham Welsh sues after a cruising for a bruising The Dawn Princess leaves White Bay / Pic: Timothy Clapin Source: News Limited IT was supposed to be a holiday of a lifetime but Graham Welsh was left stranded in a foreign hospital with a head injury - and without his passport or wallet. The Downing Centre District Court yesterday heard the 55-year-old builder thought: "Geez, how am I going to get back home." Mr Welsh is suing Carnival Cruises Australia after being injured by falling roof panels and lights on board the Dawn Princess during a Pacific cruise in June 2009 - and then being "abandoned" in a Fiji hospital. Graham Welsh leaves JMT court house, Sydney / Pic: Bradley Hunter Source: News Limited He told the court he was four days into a 13-day cruise from Sydney to Fiji and other islands when he suffered a minor brain injury as the roof panels and lights fell on him in a hallway. Mr Welsh, from Caroline Springs in Victoria, has sued the cruise line for an estimated $750,000 in damages, claiming the accident ruined his career by turning him into an angry man who couldn't cope in his high-flying job. Before the accident Mr Welsh was a senior executive with one of Australia's largest building companies. But after he was so angry at work and had difficulty concentrating that he was forced to quit his $500,000-a-year job. Carnival (Cruises) Australia doesn't dispute that Mr Welsh suffered the minor brain injury but it is arguing about the size of the compensation he should be paid. Mr Welsh said that within hours of the incident he was vomiting and suffered headaches, so the ship's doctor told him he should disembark at the next port, Suva, Fiji and go to hospital for a scan. Mr Welsh agreed to go to hospital but felt that once he left the ship he was "abandoned" by the cruise line. They took me down the gang-plank and stuck me in a cab. I was surprised because no one accompanied me (to hospital)," he told the court. No one was assisting me and I didn't know what to do. He said all he was carrying was a book and a credit card - he had no passport or luggage. "The way I was treated on the ship was appalling," he said. Mr Welsh said his distressing ordeal was made worse the following day when he tried to board the ship after completing his scan. He said the crew blocked him from boarding because he didn't have the correct pass and his travelling companion was forced to intervene to sort out the drama. Mr Welsh claims this experience belittled and humiliated him in front of other passengers. Carnival Cruises counsel Mark McCulloch SC suggested to Mr Welsh that the lawsuit was less about his head injury and more about getting payback for the way he felt he had been mistreated by the cruise line. "You (were bitter) that you hadn't got what you had bargained for, or paid for, and that was an enjoyable cruise," Mr McCulloch suggested. Mr Welsh agreed he had been angry at the way he was treated but denied that was his motive for taking his case to court.