USCG Medevacs Man from Tanker 12 mi off Galveston

 

A Coast Guard boatcrew medevaced a 46-year-old man from an oil tanker in the Galveston Fairway Anchorage Wednesday evening.

At approximately 3 p.m., Coast Guard Sector Houston-Galveston watchstanders received a phone call from the captain of the 580-foot Jupiter Ace stating that a crewmember was coughing blood for unknown reasons.

Watchstanders launched a boatcrew from Coast Guard Station Galveston aboard a 45-foot response boat along with two local paramedics. The boatcrew and a paramedic moved the man from the taker onto the response boat.

"Normally the boatcrew would not have paramedics ride to the scene with them," said Petty Officer 1st class Jeff Linberg, duty watchstander at Sector Houston-Galveston. "However, we try to be flexible and in this case it was decided that the nature of the man's problems warranted the extra medical support."

The boatcrew transferred the patient and the paramedics to an ambulance waiting at Station Galveston. The man was taken to University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston in stable condition.