Woman dies after being dropped in the Sea

An Ill passenger of Cruise and Maritimes Ocean Countess was dropped in freezing waters off the coast of Norway.

The female passenger had fallen ill with suspected internal bleeding and was being transferred from the ship onto a rescue vessel to be taken to a hospital in Bodo in Norway.  The two vessels seperated and the passenger fell in.  She was in the freezing water, strapped to a stretcher for a few minuites. The passenger however did have on her life jacket.

Once she was rescued from the water she had to be resuscitated as she had stopped breathing.  She was air lifted to a Hospital in the UK the same day.

According to the cruiseline there is an ongoing investigation by Cruise and Maritime into this matter.

After being air lifted to Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle the passenger sadly died.

“Mrs. Richardson was treated in Norway and underwent brain and heart scans before being airlifted back to the UK last Wednesday,” reports the Daily Mail. “She had a tracheotomy in her throat and could not speak and was also suspected of having kidney problems.”

I have not heard of this before.  On my time working on cruise ships unfortunatly there have been occasions where passengers have been taken ill and taken to a local hospitals, however this was done in port and not transfered from ship to ship.  I have been on board where a passenger has been air lifted by helicopter because we were too far out to sea to be able to dock (this is why there are heilpads on cruise ships. They are not there for show)

 This is why travel insurance is very important.  Just think how much it would be to charter a helicopter out to a cruise ship.

The ships captain did exactly what should have been done and sought medical attention ashore as soon as he could.  There are excellent medical facilities on cruise lines however the best place to be is in a hospital if you do fall serverely ill on board.