Cruise Passenger Medically Evacuated Off North Carolina Coast

Petty Officer Edward Wargo of the Royal Caribbean cruise-liner Anthem of the Seas this morning confirmed to USA Today that a passenger was airlifted from the ship on Sunday afternoon, November 3, 2019, after the captain called in a request for U.S. Coast Guard support.

A Coast Guard Fifth District crew from the station at Elizabeth City, North Carolina, met Anthem of the Seas at its position about 60 miles from Cape Hatteras, an island that’s part of North Carolina’s Outer Banks, in an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter. An elderly male patient, reported to have been suffering signs of internal bleeding, along with this wife and the ship’s doctor, was then flown to Vidant Medical Center in Greenville for further treatment.

While Royal Caribbean did not respond to USA Today’s request for comment, it’s worth noting that all of the cruise line’s passenger ships provide onboard medical care and facilities, though the extent to which such services are available vary by vessel.

The company’s website elaborates: “Depending on the size of the ship and number of passengers and crew members, each RCL ship has one to three doctors and three to five nurses, available to passengers and crew members 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” noting also that its vessels are staffed and equipped to meet the standards set by the American College of Emergency Physicians, Cruise Ship & Maritime Medicine Section.

Cruisemapper.com depicts Anthem of the Seas’ current itinerary as a seven-day, round-trip Bahamian cruise, which departed from Brooklyn, New York, on November 2 and arrives today in Port Canaveral, Florida, before proceeding to Coco Cay and Nassau, Bahamas, then finishing back in New York on November 9.