Coast Guard Responds to Another Louisiana Cruise Ship Emergency

The United States Coast Guard was summoned into service by a cruise ship emergency that was reported Sunday night aboard a vessel making its way down the Mississippi River near Venice Louisiana. This is the second time in the past three days that Coast Guard teams responded to issues with passengers and or crew aboard the large ocean-going liners that sail out of the Port of New Orleans.

Sunday's issue was actually reported while the Norwegian Cruise Lines vessel Breakaway was still sailing on the Mississippi River. The call came into the Coast Guard Sector New Orleans just before 9 pm. The crew of the Breakaway reported a female passenger, aged 64, was in critical condition and in need of immediate medical attention.

Over the weekend Coast crews scrambled to the attention of a medical emergency aboard the Carnival Cruise Lines vessel Valor after a crew member was reported to be experiencing a medical emergency. In that event, Coast Guard helicopters were dispatched. In Sunday's event, the USGC responded with a 45-foot response boat since the situation occurred on the river.

For those of you unfamiliar with cruise ships, they do have medical staff and limited medical facilities onboard these huge floating cities. However, the ships are not equipped to handle extreme medical situations. In those cases, the medical staff on board seeks to stabilize the patient until emergency treatment or transportation to another better-equipped facility can be arranged.

The NCL Breakaway was located just off Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula early this morning. It is on a seven-day itinerary to ports of call in Costa Maya Mexico, Harvest Caye Belize, Roatan Island Honduras, and Cozumel Mexico. The Breakaway is scheduled to return to its current home port in New Orleans on December 11th.