A 99-year-old man was among two passengers helicopter-rescued from the same Princess Cruise ship on the same day as it sailed through the raging waters off Alaska.
The US Coast Guard (USCG) and Canadian officials coordinated two separate medical evacuations from the Ruby Princess ship on Sunday.
Coast Guard Northwest District watchstanders received notification from the cruise ship, which was located approximately 145 nautical miles west of Cape Flattery, Washington, that two patients onboard required immediate medical evacuations.
One was a 99-year-old male passenger suffering from complete esophageal obstruction, meaning the tube connecting the throat to the stomach was completely blocked, preventing the passage of food and liquids.
The other was a 52-year-old female passenger who had suffered sudden cardiac arrest and was on life support.
A MH-65 Dolphin helicopter from USCG Air Station Port Angeles was launched to medevac the 99-year-old.
Footage showed the elderly man was successfully hoisted into the air as massive waves crashed below.
Crews did a wing-to-wing transfer with Life Flight Network at Neah Bay, Washington, to get him to a hospital.
The 99-year-old male passenger was suffering from complete esophageal obstruction and was successfully hoisted into the air as massive waves crashed below (pictured)
The US Coast Guard and Canadian officials coordinated the two separate medical evacuations as the ship sailed to Alaska
Members from the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) Joint Rescue Coordination Centre Victoria launched a CH-149 Cormorant helicopter from 19 Wing Comox to conduct a medical evacuation of the 52-year-old female.
They successfully hoisted the patient and transported her 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,’ said Cmdr. Kelly Higgins, commanding officer of US Coast Guard Air Station Port Angeles.
‘The expert coordination between the Canadian Coast Guard, the Life Flight Network, the Royal Canadian Air Force and the US Coast Guard ensured this patient received the care they needed.’
The passengers’ status is unknown, and the Daily Mail contacted the Coast Guard and Princess Cruises for more information.
The Ruby Princess had departed from San Francisco on Friday and was sailing to its first stop in Ketchikan, Alaska, also known as the Salmon Capital of the world, on Monday, when the medical emergencies happened.
The ship was on an 11-day cruise of Alaska, making several stops throughout The Last Frontier and Canada before returning to California.
In a Facebook group for the voyage, some passengers claimed there were several cases of Covid on board.
In the early days of the pandemic, the Ruby Princess had a major coronavirus outbreak that left more than two dozen people dead.
The US Coast Guard (pictured) rescued the 99-year-old man and Canadian officials rescued a a 52-year-old female passenger who had suffered sudden cardiac arrest
In December, a 72-year-old American tourist was feared dead after mysteriously disappearing during a five-day trip to Mexico on the Ruby Princess cruise ship (pictured)
The ship sailed from Sydney for New Zealand on a 13-day round trip, but returned 11 days later when Australia’s borders were shut in the early days of the pandemic in March 2020.
In total, 663 positive cases were reported among the 2,641 passengers. Twenty-eight people died during the outbreak.
Passengers won a class action lawsuit against the cruise company after an Australian court ruled they should have known or ought to have known about the heightened risk of COVID-19 infection on the vessel.
In December, a 72-year-old American tourist was feared dead after mysteriously vanished during a five-day trip to Mexico on the Ruby Princess cruise ship.
It is believed the US citizen, who was not named, had been travelling alone on the cruise’s five-day voyage around Mexico.
His disappearance was treated as a man overboard incident, the company said in a statement.
