Two travelers in need of urgent medical care were evacuated from a Princess Cruises ship.
The U.S. Coast Guard and Royal Canadian Air Force removed a 52-year-old woman and 99-year-old man from the Ruby Princess ship on Aug. 24. The woman was on life support after experiencing sudden cardiac arrest, while the man had complete esophageal obstruction, according to a news release.
The ship was about 145 nautical miles west of Washington’s Cape Flattery at the time. The vessel is sailing an 11-day cruise to Alaska and Canada that departed from San Francisco on Aug. 22, per CruiseMapper.
A helicopter rescue crew hoisted the man from the ship and “conducted a wing-to-wing transfer with Life Flight Network at Neah Bay, Washington,” the Coast Guard said, while the woman was taken to Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria, British Columbia.
“This case demonstrates how our specialized expertise and dedicated training allows us to rapidly respond to these types of time-sensitive medical evacuations at sea,“ Cmdr. Kelly Higgins, commanding officer of U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Port Angeles, said in the release. “The expert coordination between the Canadian Coast Guard, the Life Flight Network, the Royal Canadian Air Force and the U.S. Coast Guard ensured this patient received the care they needed.”
Princess did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Cruise ships have onboard medical facilities that can treat a wide range of ailments. Dr. Joe Scott, senior director of fleet medical operations at Carnival Corp., told USA TODAY in 2023 that clinics for its North American brands – including Princess – are set up like an emergency department.
“There really isn’t (anything) we can’t treat, at least for the first few hours,” he said. If a patient needs additional care, they may disembark them at the next stop or consider whether the Coast Guard or equivalent officials in other countries can conduct a medevac.
The exact method depends largely on “the weather, the location and the assets available,” according to Scott.
Nathan Diller is a consumer travel reporter for USA TODAY based in Nashville. You can reach him at ndiller@usatoday.com.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Two passengers airlifted from Ruby Princess after medical crises
