Coast Guard air crew assisting on three medical emergencies in remote Northwestern Hawaiian Islands

HONOLULU – A U.S. Coast Guard C-130 air crew medically evacuated two injured persons from Midway Atoll and dropped off supplies for a third injured person at Kure Atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands today.
The three cases are not related.

The Coast Guard was contacted at 2 p.m. Tuesday by the master of the container vessel Kaoshiung, which was in a position approximately 450 miles northwest of Midway Atoll. The ship called for help for a 42-year-old male crew member suffering from severe abdominal pains.

The Coast Guard directed the container ship toward Midway and arranged for the injured crew member to be transferred ashore. The C-130 air crew left Honolulu at 4:30 a.m. today for Midway in time to be waiting when the container ship crew member was brought ashore.

At 10:30 p.m. last night, the Coast Guard was also contacted by the State of Hawaii’s Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) concerning a volunteer who crushed a finger at Kure, approximately 50 miles west of Midway.

At 8:30 a.m. today, while the C-130 was already en route, the Coast Guard received a third call for medical assistance for a 35-year-old male contractor on Midway suffering from an infected wound.

The C-130 crew medically evacuated the container ship crew member and contractor from Midway at noon and dropped medical supplies to the injured volunteer at Kure on the way back to Honolulu.

The air crew is scheduled to land at Barbers Point early this evening and transfer the patients to City and County of Honolulu Emergency Medical Services personnel.

“The Coast Guard prides itself on its ability to be flexible,” said Petty Officer 1stClass Franco Hernandez, a search and rescue controller with the Coast Guard’s 24-hour command center in Honolulu. “We were able to adapt, alter course on the way back and drop medical supplies to Kure and successfully respond to three calls for help in a pretty remote part of the world.”


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