Coast Guard Station South Padre Island 33-Foot Special Purpose Craft-Law Enforcement file photo by PA2 Adam Eggers.
Coast Guard Sector/Air Station Corpus Christi command center watchstanders received a medevac request at 7:16 a.m. via VHF Channel 16 from the crew of the El Zorro Grande, a tugboat transiting outbound on the Brownsville ship channel, stating the captain, a 49-year-old man, had passed out.
A Coast Guard Station South Padre Island 33-foot Special Purpose Craft–Law Enforcement boat crew launched to assist with a duty corpsman aboard.
The SPC-LE crew arrived on scene, embarked the man, and safely transported him to awaiting emergency medical services at an oil dock in Port Isabel, Texas.
A Brownsville pilot, who was aboard at the time, maneuvered the tug back to the cargo dock.
“Our crew had an amazing response time which allowed us to arrive on scene as quick as possible,” said Petty Officer 2nd Class Ali Rae Sheppard, Station South Padre Island SPC-LE coxswain. “The corpsman recommended the captain be brought to EMS to get checked out and thanks to the incredible response time from our crew and EMS, we were able to get him the help he needed.”
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