The US Coast Guard performed medical evacuation from the Holland America cruise ship MS Koningsdam, on a 68-year-old woman with head injury on Wednesday morning. After receiving a call from the MS Koningsdam officers, requesting medical assistance, Coast Guard Sector San Juan Command Center dispatched a Coast Guard Air Station Borinquen MH-65 Dolphin helicopter to medevac the injured woman. The Coast Guard reached Koningsdam when the ship was 36 nautical miles north northwest of Aguadilla, Puerto Rico.

The helicopter crew winched the patient together with the ship’s doctor and transferred them to the San Juan Centro Medico Hospital, where the woman was received by the emergency medical personnel.

Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin helicopter pilot, Lieutenant Matthew Udkow, who was part of the operation said „The entire crew utilized our collective experience and training to accomplish this challenging mission efficiently and safely, providing rapid access to high level medical services to the critically injured passenger.”