BOSTON — A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter crew transported an ill crewman from a cruise ship approximately 46 miles southeast if Nantucket, Mass., to a Cape Cod, Mass., hospital Thursday.
The crew of the 965-foot cruise ship Norwegian Dawn contacted Coast Guard Sector Southeastern New England personnel around 6 p.m., requesting assistance for a 35-year-old crewman experiencing abdominal pain.
A Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew hoisted the man and transported him to Cape Cod Hospital.
His condition is unknown.
“After the flight surgeon determined the patient required medical care that wasn’t available on the cruise ship, we dispatched the helicopter crew to transport him from the ship to the hospital,” said Rick Arsenault, a search and rescue controller at the First Coast Guard District Command Center in Boston. “Our crew was able to get him the attention he needed much faster than having the ship come into port.”
The Coast Guard is responsible for medical transfers at sea.
Air Station Cape Cod has completed 64 maritime medical transports since January 2011.
