SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. – The Coast Guard medically evacuated a 72-year-old man near Bayfield, Wisconsin, Thursday afternoon.
At around 4 p.m., a communications watchstander at Coast Guard Sector Sault Ste. Marie received a call via marine radio from a 35-foot sailing vessel about a 72-year-old male experiencing extreme abdominal pain. The vessel was approximately 2000 yards southeast of Stockton Island, Wisconsin, one of the Apostle Islands in Lake Superior.
A rescue boat crew aboard a 45-foot response boat launched from Coast Guard Station Bayfield, Wisconsin, with emergency medical services personnel aboard.
The boat crew arrived on scene and transferred the patient to the Coast Guard response boat. EMTs evaluated and attended to the man as the boat crew brought him to an awaiting ambulance at Station Bayfield, where the patient was taken to Ashland Memorial Hospital.
The man’s condition is unknown.
“The Station Bayfield boat crew provided an exceptionally swift response to a mariner in need of urgent medical care,” said Lt. j.g. Derek Puzzuoli, the public affairs officer at Sector Sault Sainte Marie. They coordinated flawlessly with local emergency medical services to provide first-rate assistance to the distressed mariner.”