Air Station Atlantic City crews get injured captain to hospital

Coast Guard crews from Air Station Atlantic City helped in getting an injured man to the hospital Sunday from off the coast of Virginia. Watchstanders at 5th District command center in Portsmouth received an Electronic Position Indicating Radio Beacon, or EPIRB alert from the 75-foot trawler Captain Nathan with three people aboard. The crew of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter 270-foot-long Escanaba established communications with the crew and discovered the captain was suffering symptoms of a stroke. The MH-65D Dolphin helicopter crew from Air Station Atlantic City arrived and hoisted the man, transferring him to the Cape May Airport, where another helicopter crew from Air Station Atlantic City transferred the man to AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center's City Campus in Atlantic City. "The quick actions and critical thinking of all Coast Guard units and the crew of the fishing boat resulted in locating the mariner and bringing him to the medical care he needed as quickly as possible," said Petty Officer 1st Class Joe Watford, search and rescue controller at 5th District. "Cases like this prove why mariner's should keep a properly registered EPIRB onboard their vessel."