Once again, heroes from the US Coast Guard saved the day when its Houston-Galveston team came to the rescue of a passenger who had just embarked on a cruise to the Western Caribbean.
A 71-year-old male guest aboard Carnival Cruise Line’s Carnival Jubilee, which had only departed on its 7-night voyage from Galveston at 2 p.m., was medically evacuated on Saturday, October 26, 2024, while the ship was offshore Texas in the Gulf of Mexico.
Coast Guard Sector Houston-Galveston received the call at approximately 5:19 p.m. from a crew member aboard the 5,374-passenger ship sailing to its first call in Roatan, Honduras.
Exhibiting symptoms of a heart attack, the Coast Guard launched a 45-foot response boat from Station Galveston to medevac the man, enlisting support from the Galveston Fire Department.
On scene, the crew safely embarked the passenger, and the fire department and local EMS teams were waiting. They transported him to a nearby medical facility for further treatment. No further details have been provided on the passenger.
The 183,521-gross-ton Carnival Jubilee, which joined the cruise line fleet in December 2023 and homeports in Galveston year-round, continued its voyage and is currently spending October 28 at sea ahead of calls in Costa Maya and Cozumel, Mexico. The vessel will return to Galveston on November 2, 2024.
Recent Surge in Coast Guard Rescues
This isn’t the first time a Carnival cruise has been halted shortly after departing due to a medical emergency.
In August 2024, Carnival Venezia was just hours into its voyage from Port of Manhattan in New York when a 56-year-old woman experienced an emergency that required she be airlifted by a team from Coast Guard Sector New York.
In fact, in recent months, the US Coast Guard has conducted several rescues from cruise ships. These rescues have covered a range of medical issues, from heart attacks to severe gastrointestinal symptoms, and swift action has ensured passengers receive timely medical care.
Earlier this month, the New Orleans Coast Guard conducted two back-to-back rescues on two separate sailings on Carnival Liberty. The first involved a 66-year-old male passenger experiencing stroke-like symptoms who was airlifted by the Coast Guard’s MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew ahead of the ship’s arrival in New Orleans.
Shortly after the rescue, a second call came in for a 30-year-old female passenger experiencing appendicitis after the vessel embarked on its next voyage from New Orleans. The MH-60 Jayhawk was reemployed for a second rescue.
And just weeks before, the Coast Guard in Honolulu, Hawaii, also had back-to-back rescues aboard Princess Cruises’ Crown Princess during the ship’s 114-night world cruise. Doctors from the vessel contacted the rescue team in Honolulu about a 70-year-old man with heart attack symptoms and an 86-year-old man with internal bleeding.
In that dramatic airlift, two Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin helicopters were flown to transport the passengers to Hilo Medical Center in Hilo, Hawaii.
The Coast Guard’s process for rescues at sea is a coordinated effort involving communication between cruise ships, command centers, and onboard duty flight surgeons who assess the severity of each case.
If a medevac is determined to be necessary, Coast Guard teams are dispatched via helicopter or rescue boat, depending on the situation’s location and urgency. However, one thing that is clear about each rescue is the Coast Guard’s rigorous training to handle challenging rescues from large vessels and provide in-transit medical support.
