Crew members from U.S. Coast Guard Station Cortez, 4530 124th St. Ct. W., Bradenton, medevaced a 43-year-old British national experiencing a cardiac event Jan. 1 from the Royal Caribbean cruise ship, Serenade of the Seas, according to USCG spokesperson Erik Villa.
Villa told The Islander Jan. 5 that the man’s name was not included on the USCG incident report.
According to the report, cruise ship staff were notified that the man was suffering chest pain around 5:30 p.m. and immediately contacted USCG Sector St. Petersburg.
USCG St. Pete then called USCG Cortez since it was closest to the cruise ship, which was about 17 miles offshore of Anna Maria Island.
USCG Cortez deployed a vessel with a rescue crew and transferred the man off the cruise ship around 8:30 p.m.
The medevac crew brought the man to the Coast Guard-Cortez station, where he was transferred into the care of West Manatee Fire Rescue paramedics until Manatee County emergency medical services arrived.
WMFR Chief Ben Rigney told The Islander Jan. 5 that district paramedics had little involvement at the scene before Manatee County emergency medical services took over treatment upon arrival, in accordance with the 1986 U.S. Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act.
He said that, while deploying district paramedics to assist in cardiac events is the procedure, EMS did not need assistance with treatment since the man was not in need of immediate care.
