Personal Injury Law

Cruise ship woman critical

By Lipcon, Margulies & Alsina, P.A.

A woman remains in a critical condition in Tasmania's Royal Hobart Hospital after being winched from the deck of a cruise ship anchored in Wineglass Bay on the state's east coast.

Constable Michael Preshaw from Police, Search and Rescue says the woman's medical condition was life threatening.

He says the police rescue helicopter lowered two intensive care paramedics onto the Pacific Princess and circled the ship for half an hour before the woman was winched up.

"She was very sick and the boat was at least 8 hours from port so the ship's doctor decided it was paramount she get transferred to a hospital as soon as she could," he said.

Constable Preshaw says changing weather conditions made the rescue difficult.

"We obviously dropped the paramedics down first and then we had to circle for about half an hour whilst they were seeing the patient and in that half an hour the wind changed direction and then got a fair bit stronger which made winching a bit more difficult and then in the end it was just deemed the risks weren't going to be worth it so we decided to abort the second winch with the second paramedic and left him there."

Originally Posted at: www.abc.net.au

Full post as published by Cruise Ship Law on March 07, 2011 (boomark / email).