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The Honolulu Advertiser

Updated at 10:37 a.m., Friday, December 7, 2007

Coast Guard provides aid 800 miles southwest of Oahu

Advertiser Staff

Coast Guard members of cutter Kukui — a 225-foot buoy tender home ported in Honolulu — this week helped with a medical evacuation of an injured fisherman aboard the Taiwanese fishing vessel Sheng Yi Tsai No. 166, about 800 miles southwest of O'ahu.

A 33-year-old Indonesian crew member on the 93-foot-long liner became ill Sunday and his deteriorating condition prompted the vessel's master to request medical assistance. Officials in Taiwan then solicited help from JRCC Honolulu, operated by the U.S. Coast Guard's 14th District in Honolulu.

Search and rescue controllers from Honolulu alerted Kukui and diverted the buoy tender to respond. At 10 a.m. Thursday Hawai'i time the Kukui met the Sheng Yi Tsai in heavy seas and poor visibility generated by the recent storm system that hit the Hawaiian Islands.

The Kukui's crew launched the cutter's small boat and dispatched a medical assistance team. Once aboard the fishing vessel, despite a language barrier, a Coast Guard health services technician appraised the victim's symptoms and contacted medical officials in Hawai'i for further guidance.

Based upon the victim's condition, it was determined the Kukui would escort the Sheng Yi Tsai 200 miles north to Johnston Island, an uninhabited U.S. atoll once used by the Department of Defense.

The Kukui is expected to arrive at Johnston Island this morning to meet a Coast Guard C-130 aircraft from Air Station Barbers Point.

The C-130's crew will medevac the victim to Honolulu.

The Kukui and her crew of 50 have been on patrol since Oct. 22, conducting fisheries law enforcement and servicing aids to navigation throughout the South and Central Pacific Ocean.