Patient Transported to Galveston Hospital

On Sunday, 09 July, the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) evacuated a crew member from an oil rig some 88-miles off the Gulf coast of Freeport, Texas.

Coast Guard Sector Houston-Galveston command center watchstanders received a notification at 05:46 CDT that a 50-year-old oil rig crewman was experiencing symptoms of cardiac arrest and was in acute need of medical assistance. Watchstanders consulted with the duty flight surgeon, who subsequently recommended medical evacuation of the stricken individual.

Houston-Galveston watchstanders launched a Coast Guard Air Station Houston Eurocopter MH-65 Dolphin crew to conduct the medevac operation and a Coast Guard Air Station Corpus Christi HC-144 Ocean Sentry airplane crew to provide a cover flight. The EADS HC-144 Ocean Sentry is a twin-engined, high-wing, turboprop aircraft based on the Airbus Military CN-235. The HC-144 is built in Spain by Airbus Military and procured by USCG to function in the role of a medium-range surveillance aircraft.

The MH-65 Dolphin crew landed their helicopter aboard the oil rig, embarked the imperiled individual, and transferred him to the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. The patient was reportedly in stable condition.

Created by Congress as the Revenue-Marine on 04 August 1790, the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) is the oldest continuously operating naval service of the United States. The Semper Paratus (Always Ready) motto to which the Coast Guard aspires speaks to the outfit’s ethos and the nature of its humanitarian and security missions.

Stated simply, the Coast Guard protects the United States' borders and defends her sovereignty by safeguarding sea lines of communication and commerce across 95,000-miles of U.S. coastline and the entirety of the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone. This critical work is carried out by 44,500 active-duty personnel, 7,000 reservists, and 8,577 full-time civilian employees.

The USCG’s fleet of roughly 250 coastal and ocean-going cutters, patrol ships, buoy tenders, tugs, and icebreakers; as well as nearly two-thousand small boats and specialized craft constitutes the world’s 12th largest naval force. The service’s aviation division comprises north of two-hundred helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft the likes of the AC-37A (Gulfstream V), HC-144A (Airbus CN-235), and Lockheed’s mighty HC-130 Hercules utility turboprop transport. To supplement the aforementioned and better support its homeland security and search & rescue operations, the Coast Guard is building an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) program around General Atomics’ MQ-9 Reaper platform.

In its humanitarian capacity, the U.S. Coast Guard saves tens-of-thousands of lives every year and provides emergency response and disaster management for all manner of man-made emergencies, meteorological exigencies, and outright natural disasters.

FMI: www.uscg.mil