CLEVELAND – A Coast Guard aircrew medically evacuated an 80-year-old man off Beaver Island in Lake Michigan Sunday night.
At 5:40 p.m., emergency medical personnel on Beaver Island contacted a search and rescue coordinator at the Coast Guard Ninth District command center to request assistance with transporting an 80-year-old man, who was suffering from signs of a stroke, to a hospital in Michigan.
Crew members from Coast Guard Air Station Traverse City, Mich., transfer an ill man from an MH-65C Dolphin helicopter to emergency medical services at the air station, Nov. 23, 2014. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Lt. Cmdr. Charlie Wilson.
A rescue aircrew in an MH-65C Dolphin helicopter launched from Coast Guard Air Station Traverse City, Michigan, to assist.
The Coast Guard aircrew met EMTs and the man at the Beaver Island Airport, where he was brought aboard the helicopter for transport to the air station. Once there, local EMTs further transported him to Munson Medical Center in Traverse City.
The man was last known to be in stable condition.
“This crew did an awesome job dodging fog, heavy rain and very low visibility to get the patient safely to higher level care,” said Lt. Cmdr. Charlie Wilson, the air station’s systems operations officer.
