The U.S. Coast Guard has shared a video of its MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter medically evacuating a man from the U.S. Navy supply support ship ‘NAWC 38’ 160 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.
On Friday, June 21, watchstanders in the 5th Coast Guard District Command Center in Portsmouth received notification from the Navy vessel that a 60-year-old male crew member was in need of medical care 400 miles southeast of Wilmington, North Carolina.
The ship’s master reported that the man had been found unconscious, was revived with an automated external defibrillator and had a weak pulse.
Command Center watchstanders directed the crew of the 192-foot offshore supply vessel to transit to a rendezvous point closer to shore and communicated hourly with the ship’s medical personnel.
An MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew launched from Air Station Elizabeth City, North Carolina, at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday and met the NAWC 38 about 160 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras at 9:50 a.m. The helicopter crew then hoisted the man and transported him to Wilmington International Airport by noon, where EMS personnel transferred him to New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington.
“We were able to deliver this man to the medical care he needed due to diligent communications and teamwork with the crew aboard the Navy ship,” said Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class Travis Unser , operational unit controller for the case.