RESCUE

This is my last and saddest picture of our cruise as we were informed by the captain that in about 20 minutes time a US Coastguard helicopter would arrive to airlift a fellow passenger with a life threatening illness and fly to a nearby hospital. as you can imagine a whole lot people tried to figure out where the helicopter would land so they could be there to take pictures. I was one of them. now I must mention that it was very very windy and it looked like that this mission was being performed while the ship under reduced speed continued its course. the helicopter when finally arrived took a few tries back and forth to get as close to the ship as possible and then hovered there for the longest time after letting down the rescue basket for the doctor and his staff got the patient ready to be lifted up. It was sad but also very exciting. I took about 36 pictures but missed one. when the helicopter turned around it came down a bit and about 14 stacked deckchairs where uplifted by the down draft and flew overboard. now this happened so fast that I didn't have time to bring the camera into focus and missed my shot. the next morning the captain announced that the rescue mission was a total success. after flying to the US Marine Station in Guantanamo, Cuba to gas up the helicopter took the patient to a hospital in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida where he is recuperating we were told..

[Arthur Loosley]

An interesting picture, Bruni; a captured moment of real life well supported by the eye-witness commentary!

[leon Coetzer]

Very cool

[Cindi S]

Too bad you missed the shot you wanted... I am relieved that the passenger is better and the mission was successful!

[Diana Moss]

How sad , hope the patient makes a full recovery.very reassuringly that they can get passengers to hospital quickly .

[bruni]

@snowy thank you for your comment Diana...i thought the same thing it is reassuring and of course the ship has actually a well equipped hospital on board for not so life threatening cases. there were a lot elderly people on board many with wheelchairs and oxygen canisters.

[bruni]

@wordpixman thank you so much for the comment..its good to know that in an emergency there is help for the more life treatening cases as each ship also has full medical staff on board.

[Kerri]

I hope the passenger makes a full recovery! Great capture

[Alecio]

Nicely captured!

[Mae M]

SO SORRY! but the shot is still 1894WOW!

[bruni]

@starfish I read this now a few time....what is the meaning of 1894WOW? thanks for your comment.

[Paula Fontanini]

Wow! Very dramatic capture and kind of scary if you think of how many things could have gone wrong with that scenario! Well done!

[bruni]

@bluemoon yes Paula you're absolutely right.. on the other hand its comforting to know that rescues are available in an emergency as there are always a great number of elderly people on board.

[Margaret Tryon]

Oh wow. What a shot. The possibilities are frightening. Luckily the loading of the patient and the end results went well.
Wonderful capture. You may have missed the chair shot, but you do have a picture of it in your mind.

[Mae M]

@bruni I don't really know either it probably means amazing

[Graham Harcombe]

Quite an event - well captured - never mind the missed details.

[Pyrrhula]

End good, all good, glad to know she`s/he`s recoverd well. Great shot

[Abraham Lincoln]

That had to be the most exciting even on the entire trip.

[Allison Williams]

Quite a story and well worth documenting, especially with its happy ending.

[Ellen Chasse]

Wow that is quite a story Bruni, exciting too to be there at the time and I understand what you mean.. Good to hear the person uplifted is doing OK..
Bruni, about the heart frame on my picture, I have a tiny wooden heart shape, with a heart shape in the middle too. I got it in a bag of heart stuff at a yard sale. I simply 'framed' the flowerbud with it, and took my picture ;>) simple, eh? LOL

[bruni]

@afronaut @csimmons @kerristephens @alecio @pyrrhula @honestabe @ellida @maggie2 @allie912 @dollybeads One and all thank you for your lovely comment on the rescue mission picture.

[Laura Demko]

wow! what an exciting thing to witness. glad to know the patient is ok and glad you weren't in one of the deck chairs that went flying overboard!

[Bugik]

Great shot, of the rescue mission Bruni! I hope the passenger is OK...

[bruni]

@bugik I hope so..it was a bit scary imagining being in that basket and being pulled up to the helicopter...seeing it in a movie is different than see it in real life. thank you Bugik for your thoughful comment. @pinktornado39 @pinktornado39

[bruni]

@pinktornado39 sorry I didn't finish my comment..was going to mention that I'm glad it wasn't me being transported to a hospital..
when my daughter invited me on this cruise I had to think about it twice since I have a heart problem.

[Laura Demko]

@bruni - glad all turned out well. my father-in-law had a heart attack last week, but is recovering well this week, so I understand your concerns. again, glad you weren't in the basket, but so glad they were able to take care of that patient.

[Angie Berg]

Wow. That is a cool picture. Too bad you couldn't have gotten the one with the chairs flying in the air. Glad to hear the passenger is doing well.

[Louise & Ken]

How very exciting to have seen how that was done! You got a good picture and your caption really told the whole story! I'm sure you had a very nice cruise! We did a trans-Atlantic in April-May to Europe...great time!