Coast Guard hoists woman from cruise ship en route to N.J.

The U.S. Coast Guard came to the rescue of a 83-year-old woman who fell ill on a cruise ship heading to port in New Jersey on Friday afternoon.

Officials say Royal Caribbean International’s Anthem of the Seas ship was about 160 miles southeast of Elizabeth City, North Carolina when the captain requested a medical evacuation.

The woman was suffering symptoms of renal failure, according to a Coast Guard news release.

The Coast Guard dispatched an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew and an HC-130 Hercules airplane crew from Air Station Elizabeth City to complete the rescue mission.

The helicopter crew hoisted the woman, her family member, and a nurse aboard and transported them to Norfolk Sentara General Hospital in Norfolk, Virginia.

“Our main priority during emergencies like these is to reach the person as quickly as possible and deliver them to higher care,” said Lt. j.g. Catherine Taylor Pravia, operations unit controller for the case. “Our thoughts are with this patient and her family, and we wish her a speedy recovery.”

It’s the fifth Coast Guard rescue requiring a helicopter hoist between New Jersey and North Carolina since late April.

On April 27, a man suffering from an medical emergency was lifted from a cruise ship. Two days later, another ill man was rescued from a fishing boat.

Less than a week later, a disoriented man was pulled from a grounded boat near the Little Egg Inlet. Then a day after the Little Egg Inlet incident, a man having difficulty breathing was hoisted from a fishing vessel off Atlantic City.