NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 7 (UPI) -- A crew member of a Carnival cruise ship in the Gulf of Mexico was injured Saturday when she fell and hit her head on the ship's deck, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
The Coast Guard said in a release posted on its website that one of its helicopter crews flew the 34-year-old Indonesian woman from the Carnival Conquest 172 miles to a New Orleans hospital where she was listed in stable condition.
The Coast Guard said the cruise ship was out of range of its helicopters when the accident was initially reported and the vessel was directed to head toward New Orleans.
A MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew from Coast Guard Air Station New Orleans took off about 9:30 a.m. CDT, and refueled on the Thunderhorse offshore drilling unit en route to the Carnival Conquest, arriving at the ship at 11:20 a.m.
The patient was loaded onto the helicopter and flown to Interim LSU Public Hospital for further medical treatment.
