A 71-year-old man suffered a head injury aboard a cruise ship roughly 76 miles off the Charleston, South Carolina coast on Wednesday, prompting a Coast Guard helicopter crew to hoist him from the vessel and fly him to shore. He was taken to a local hospital and was listed in stable condition after the midweek rescue.
According to WCBD News 2, a helicopter crew from U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Savannah was notified that the passenger had suffered the injury and needed to be medevaced from the ship. Coast Guard officials later shared video of the operation but did not name the cruise ship involved, nor did they explain how the passenger was hurt, the station reported.
A DVIDS video release confirms the crew flew an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter out to the ship on November 4 to retrieve the injured man. The release states plainly that the man was transferred to a local hospital in Charleston in stable condition, matching the outcome described in the station's report.
Part of a Recurring Pattern at Sea
Cruise-ship medevacs off the Carolina and Georgia coasts aren't unheard of. In January 2018, Coast Guard crews hoisted a 46-year-old woman who was reported to have suffered a stroke off the Carnival Pride just 15 miles east of Charleston, according to a bulletin from the U.S. Coast Guard, which said she and an accompanying nurse were taken to Roper St. Francis Hospital in stable condition.
In another earlier case, the station's reporting noted that an 80-year-old woman was airlifted off the Carnival Ecstasy roughly 55 miles east of Savannah, Georgia, after suffering a head injury in a fall aboard the ship.
A Separate Diversion Near Puerto Rico
Just a day after the Charleston-area rescue, a different cruise ship faced its own medical emergency far from the Carolina coast. The Legend of the Seas diverted toward Puerto Rico after a passenger required emergency medical attention, and a Coast Guard helicopter evacuated that individual on the morning of November 5, according to Cruise Hive. That outlet reported that the passenger's identity and medical condition have not been publicly confirmed.
Officials have not released further details on the identity of the man injured off Charleston or the circumstances that led to his head injury. As of now, the cruise line involved in that incident also remains unnamed in public reporting.
