The US Coast Guard has medevaced a 46-year-old mariner from a commercial motor vessel about 100 nautical miles east of St. Maarten for emergency medical treatment.
A crew from Coast Guard Air Station Borinquen hoisted the mariner aboard an MH-60T Jayhawk helicopter on the morning of September 19 and flew him to the Centro Médico Hospital trauma centre in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The mariner required specialised care for a rapidly progressing infection that had not responded to medication available aboard the vessel.
Rescue Sub-Center San Juan watchstanders were alerted on Wednesday night after the master of the container ship Kotka reported that a crew member had become severely ill.
The 330-metre Liberian-flagged vessel was more than 1,300 nautical miles east of the Lesser Antilles, leaving the mariner several days from port and beyond the operational range of land-based helicopters.
Search and rescue coordinators directed the Kotka to proceed at maximum speed towards a designated rendezvous point east of the Leeward Islands. A Jayhawk crew from Air Station Borinquen was pre-positioned in Sint Maarten on September 18, supported by a Coast Guard Air Station Miami HC-144 Ocean Sentry aircraft providing navigation assistance, top-cover escort and communications.
When the Kotka reached the rendezvous point about 100 nautical miles east of St. Maarten, a coast guard rescue swimmer coordinated with the vessel's crew to hoist the mariner into the helicopter.
The aircraft then flew to the Base San Juan helipad, where emergency medical personnel received the patient and transferred him to the hospital.
The operation was conducted with assistance from the US Customs and Border Protection Office of Field Operations, Puerto Rico Emergency Medical Services and the shipping agent for the Kotka.