The U.S. Coast Guard participated in two ambulance operations to transport cruise ship passengers to shore for medical treatment.
The six-year-old boy had to be rescued from the Royal Caribbean ship Harmony of the Seas about 100 miles off the Texas coast. He suffered undisclosed injuries.
The watchdog sent emergency calls to cost guards in Corpus Christi and Houston for assistance. The boy and his mother were taken from the boat to a helicopter and taken to a medical center in Houston. He was in stable condition.
Two days earlier, the Coast Guard air station in Houston recovered a man suffering from abdominal pain from an oil tanker 10 miles south of Galveston, Texas.
The second cruise ship ambulance incident occurred just hours after the first, this time 100 miles north of Puerto Rico. The crew of the Dutch-American ship Nieuw Amsterdam alerted the Coast Guard after an 81-year-old American woman suffered an open fracture to her left ankle.
This required enhanced medical attention on the beach. A Jayhawk helicopter arrived and she was safely removed from the ship.
The ship's crew were praised for their assistance.
The Coast Guard complemented the work of ship crews. “MS Nieuw Amsterdam did an excellent job of briefing the medical situation early and preparing a safe hoist area to provide excellent care to the patient,” said Petty Officer 2nd Class Curren Hinote. The elderly woman was taken to a hospital in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico.
The Coast Guard typically responds to cruise ships when weather conditions are not severe and the vessel is sailing within 200 miles of the coast. When winds are strong, helicopters cannot lower deck baskets to rescue sick passengers or crew.