Coast Guard, agency partners transport ailing man from Maui to Oʻahu

The Coast Guard and Hawaiʻi Life Flight medically transported an ailing 58-year-old man from the Maui Memorial Medical Center to the Straub Medical Center on Oʻahu, Monday.

Watchstanders at Joint Rescue Coordination Center Honolulu received an agency assist request from Hawaiʻi Life Flight and Straub Medical Center personnel after the patient suffered cardiac arrest while at the Maui facility.

The patient was transported aboard a Coast Guard Air Station Barbers Point HC-130J Super Hercules airplane with his extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machine to Air Station Barbers Point, where American Medical Response personnel then transferred him to Straub Medical Center.

Hawaiʻi Life Flight partnered with Straub Medical Center’s ECMO Transport Team in Honolulu to provide advanced critical care for the patient.

“Public and private partnerships like these are crucial for patient outcomes in the unique challenges that face Hawaiʻi,” said Jacob Mayer, Hawaiʻi Life Flight/AMR Program Director. “Hawaiʻi Life Flight could not have done this without the successful partnership with the US Coast Guard, Department of Health, AMR, Straub Medical Center and Maui Memorial Medical Center.”