Coast Guard: Lobsterman Dies After Heart Stops Aboard Boat
The crew of the Lady Clare lobster boat performed CPR on an ailing crewman while the boat rushed to meet the Coast Guard, but the man was pronounced dead when he reached the hospital Monday.
The Coast Guard stated that at 10 p.m. Sunday the Lady Clare contacted Coast Guard Sector Long Island Sound reporting a crewman of the 57-foot boat was having difficulty breathing. The boat was redirected from its destination to Point Judith, Rhode Island, toward Coast Guard Station Shinnecock in Hampton Bays to meet a response boat. The lobster boat was 31 nautical miles south of the Shinnecock Inlet at the time, according to the Coast Guard.
The man reportedly stopped breathing at 1 a.m. and did not have a pulse. The crew began CPR. The Coast Guard duty flight surgeon recommended that plans to transfer the patient to the response boat be abandoned, because that would have caused a lapse in CPR. Instead, when the response boat and the Lady Clare met six miles south of the inlet at 2 a.m., a Coast Guard EMT and a crew member got aboard the Lady Clare to assist with CPR. When the Lady Clare got to Oakland’s Marina, the patient was transported to Southampton Hospital, where he was declared dead, according to the Coast Guard.
the patient not be transferred to the Station Shinnecock response boat as this would cause a dangerous lapse in CPR.
“A loss like this is especially hard for everyone involved,” Station Shinnecock Commanding Officer Chief Warrant Officer Andrew White said. “Our deepest condolences go out to the victim’s family and his fellow crewmembers aboard the Lady Clare.”
The Coast Guard withheld the man’s name pending notification of next of kin.