Girl, 7, taken by helicopter from Carnival ship to St. Petersburg hospital

Josh Fiallo, Tampa Bay Times
·1 min read

CLEARWATER — A Coast Guard helicopter successfully evacuated a 7-year-old girl from a cruise ship 264 miles southwest of Clearwater on Sunday, the agency says.

The girl and her father were flown to Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg. Her condition was not released Monday.

A crew member aboard the cruise ship Carnival Dream alerted the Coast Guard that a girl onboard was in distress with abdominal pain.

The Carnival Dream sails from Galveston, Texas, to destinations in the Caribbean and the Panama Canal.

Video released by the Coast Guard show the girl being lifted into the helicopter inside a rescue basket while the chopper hovers above the ship‘s stern. The video shows the rescue happened at night.

The girl was in stable condition during the flight.

The evacuation was conducted by a MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter that left from the Coast Guard air station in Clearwater. The decision to bring the girl ashore was made in consultation with a Coast Guard surgeon.