MECHANICS WANTED
FAST RESCUE: Coast Guard transferred ailing man from his boat in the Chesapeake Bay to Coast Guard Motor Lifeboat and then hoisted him to chopper for a flight to a trauma center in Norfolk
PORTSMOUTH, Va. — The Coast Guard medevaced a man from a recreational boat in the Chesapeake Bay, on June 22, 2018.
Coast Guard Sector Hampton Roads command center received notification at 2:20 p.m. from the man’s wife that her 53-year-old husband became ill and fatigued and needed to be medevaced.
An MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew from Air Station Elizabeth City, a 45-foot Motor Lifeboat (MLB) crew from Station Milford Haven and the crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Dolphin all responded. The boat crews worked together to anchor the couple’s boat and transferred the ill man to the MLB, a safer platform to complete the hoist from.
The helicopter crew hoisted the man from the MLB and medevaced him to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital in Norfolk.
“At the same time we received the phone call from the ill man’s wife, we also received an alert from the man’s personal locator beacon, PLB, notifying us of his location and that he was in distress,” said Petty Officer 2nd Class Kristopher Gordon, search and rescue coordinator at Sector Hampton Roads. “Thanks to the quick actions of his wife, like activating the PLB, we were able to pinpoint the couple’s location and get him the proper medical attention that he required quickly.”
