Coast Guard airlifts ailing passenger from cruise ship
A Coast Guard crew airlifted a 76-year-old man with internal bleeding Tuesday evening from the Carnival cruise ship Miracle. (Courtesy Petty Officer 3rd Class Melissa McKenzie)
A 76-year-old man airlifted off a cruise ship by the U.S. Coast Guard was recovering Wednesday at a hospital on Oahu.
U.S. Coast Guard spokesman Lt. Scott Carr said the man was in stable condition Wednesday morning at the Queen’s Medical Center.
The Coast Guard said ship doctors aboard the Carnival Miracle were treating the man for internal bleeding and called for help about 4:20 p.m. Sunday. The Coast Guard maintained communication with the ship about the man’s status.
When the man’s condition worsened on Tuesday, a Coast Guard HC-130 Hercules aircraft crew flew 400 miles to transport 10 units of blood from Tripler Army Medical Center to the man. The crew dropped the blood by parachute.
But the man’s condition continued to worsen, and a Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew flew to the ship, which was about 80 miles north of Oahu. The crew hoisted the man from the cruise ship about 9 p.m. Tuesday.
The man was transferred to paramedics at Honolulu Airport, and paramedics took him to Queen’s about 10:15 p.m.
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The ship, which originally departed Vancouver, British Columbia, was en route to Nawiliwili, Kauai.
