The patient is loaded aboard the aircraft.

HONOLULU – Within 10 days, Coast Guard rescue crews flew more than 4,000 miles to render aid to ailing mariners in the Pacific Ocean. On both trips a Coast Guard Auxiliarist accompanied the rescue crew as the interpreter for the mission.

A Coast Guard C-130 and crew from Air Station Barbers Point, HI, flew more than 1,100 miles one-way to medevac an ailing man from Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge. The 48 year old victim was working as a cook aboard a Japanese fishing vessel when he reportedly suffered symptoms of a possible stroke.

The patient talking to the Auxiliarist interpreter aboard the aircraft.

The master of the fishing vessel requested medical assistance while the vessel was more than 725 miles northeast of Midway. The master had initially contacted the Japanese Coast Guard, who then contacted the ship's agent in Honolulu, who then contacted the Coast Guard Command Center here. A Coast Guard flight surgeon was consulted and recommended the medevac. Rescue coordinators then began preparing for the rescue.

The master was directed to transit to Midway, the closest land in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife service, who manages the Midway refuge, was contacted for permission to bring the foreign vessel into the environmentally-sensitive wildlife refuge and for medical assistance from the Midway staff.

The Japanese interpreter, Charlayne Chabala Holliday, who is a Coast Guard Auxiliarist in the Mililani Flotilla 10, D14, was vital to the fishing vessel's successful mooring at Midway. The channel leading to the pier is difficult to navigate and even the slightest variation outside the marked area may run a vessel aground.

On the dock, Auxiliarist Holiday talks to the patient.

Auxiliarist Holliday rode aboard the Fish and Wildlife's 18-foot catamaran to guide the master into the cargo pier without incident. As soon as the fishing vessel was moored, the patient was transferred by truck to the awaiting C-130. Holliday was just as instrumental on the pier by translating important medical information between the victim, the master and the Fish and Wildlife's Physician's Assistant. The patient was readied and stabilized for the four-hour plane ride to Oahu.

The C-130 arrived back in Oahu later that afternoon. The Japanese ship's agent and an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer met the patient at the air station, where he was transferred to an awaiting ambulance for further transport to Kuakini Hospital.

Ten days later, an almost identical medical-assistance call came from another fishing vessel in the Pacific Ocean. Once again the aircrew and Auxiliarist answered the call.

During that same month, Coast Guard rescue crews conducted 17 medevacs from across the Hawaiian Islands and the Pacific Ocean. Three times during that month, the Coast Guard received three requests for medical assistance.