Coast Guard Airlifts Ill Passenger off Cruise Ship

A Coast Guard helicopter crew was called on Sept. 22 to rescue an ill passenger from a cruise ship off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts.

A passenger aboard the luxury liner, Norwegian Escape, suffered what appeared to be a stroke on the 1,069-foot-long vessel was sailing about 46 miles off Nantucket Island, near Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

According to Cape Cod.com, an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter from Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod was summoned to airlift a 78-year-old man, who apparently suffered a cerebral hemorrhage. The aircrew arrived at about 7:30 p.m.

The Coast Guard crew also picked up a nurse from the cruise ship.

Both were both flown to Rhode Island Hospital.

A Coast Guard helicopter crew hoists a sick passenger off the Norwegian Escape cruise ship 46 miles off the Nantucket coast. (Fox screenshot)

When It’s Not Cruise Ships, It’s Fishing Boats

When a rescue victim is closer to shore, the Coast Guard will send a boat, instead of a helicopter. That was the case earlier this month when a crewman aboard a scallop-fishing boat fell overboard about 50 miles north of Nantucket, near Cape Cod.

The 24-year-old crewman fell overboard around 7 a.m., getting tangled in the fishing gear, but eventually managed to free himself. Other crew members were able to pull him aboard.

Coast Guard Station Provincetown collected an emergency medical technician from the Provincetown Fire Department and sent him out with the crew of a 47-foot Motor Lifeboat, according to a Coast Guard District 1 document.

In this case, a helicopter was needed in the end. After the EMT made his assessment of the fisherman’s injuries, he determined that the victim needed to be airlifted to Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis for further treatment.

Air Station Cape Cod sent an MH-60 Jayhawk chopper crew to make the pickup, transport, and delivery.

From NTD.tv