Posted on 04/24/2011 3:15:35 AM PDT by Cardhu
LONDON — A 73-year-old grandmother who was dropped into freezing Arctic waters during botched rescue attempt has died, British media reported Saturday.
Janet Richardson died Saturday at Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle, England, The Daily Mail reported. Her 78-year-old husband, George Richardson, was by her side at the time of her death.
Richardson had been fighting for her life in the British hospital after rescuers dropped her into freezing Arctic waters as they attempted to transfer her from a cruise ship to a lifeboat.
Richardson reportedly began to feel dizzy and ill on the Ocean Countess cruise along the coast of Norway last month. After she was examined by the ship's doctor the captain decided to transfer her to shore for treatment.
Another passenger on the ship, Colin Prescott, said both the ship and the lifeboat "were steaming at ten knots" when paramedics tried to move her on a stretcher, The Sun newspaper reported.
"The vessels, which hadn't been latched together, suddenly moved apart by several feet as they were transferring her, which caused the rescue crews to drop the stretcher into the sea," Prescott said.
George Richardson looked on in horror.
"Six men were holding the stretcher, but it went down and then Janet slipped into the sea. She was conscious throughout," he told The Sun.
British media reported that the water was -3 degrees Celsius (26.6 degrees Fahrenheit) and that it took paramedics around 8 minutes to rescue her from the frigid waters.
Colin Prescott / Patrick Hill Image: Janet Richardson, 73, is transferred to a rescue boat after being taken ill on board the Ocean Countess ship. "It was very traumatic to see her fall in," her husband said. "I thought I was going to lose her."
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
[snip]
"Larsen said it wasn't unusual for ships to be used in rescue operations instead of helicopters and said people are safely transferred between ships in Norway every day."
That will teach you not to be pining for no fjords.
One of the men was heard saying, “You’re going to have to swim the rest of the way”.
another way to look at it, God was calling her home and those men got in the way
I would hate to be the cox’n of that lifeboat as the ships moved apart.
Guess who is to blame for that.
When I was in the Arctic, testing survival gear, they used to tell us that one would only last 3 minutes unprotected in the icy waters.
This old lady lasted 8 minutes - for a while at least.
I’m sure everyone involved was horrified. Poor guy lost his wife and the rescuers have to live the rest of their lives with this haunting them. I hope they can all find some peace.
If the boats had been tethered together there was every bit as much chance of the smaller boat capsizing. At sea transfers are risky at 10 knots more so because of too many uncontrollable factors. I wasn't a Coxun but I worked boat crew { as engineman} on 50' UB's and 35' PB's for the ship while deployed when we entered ports. I about bought the farm once from a swell when we were tied to a deck house and the ship anchored.
This was one of the reasons when that cruise ship went D.I,W. last year off Cali/Mexico coast they had the passenger stay put while it was towed. There is no such critter as a risk free at sea rescue.
I would think if she was strapped onto the stretcher securely, that she would have drowned and that not being strapped to it gave her a chance?
It just seems like it took way too long for them to rescue her.
Good pics at the MSNBC site. The poor lady is lucky she survived the drop and was not pulled through the props of one of the vessels as the rescuers cling to the lifelines. They were definitely steaming too fast, look at the wake in the pic....I see a long trail of Law-lie-yers in the near future for all involved.
Anytime, peace or war, rough water or calm, moving people between two boats on the water is never a sure thing.
I remember one time, coming back from liberty, as the liberty launch full of drunk sailors pulled up to the stern of the carrier, the water was rough enough that the platform attached to the stern of the ship was rising and falling, while independently of that, the liberty launch was rising and falling at a different rate.
The result was, the boat and the deck were sometimes as far as six feet away from each other, and were swinging wildly past each other. We had to time it, so that as the two rushed past each other, they would occasionally pause for a second or two nearly even, and two or three drunk guys would leap over before it began oscillating again.
There were a few instances where people leaped badly or stumbled and either ended up in a heap on the other side, or had people grabbing them to pull them all the way over. People all doing this while completely intoxicated. To this day, I am not only amazed they were trying to get people aboard in this fashion, but also that nobody was seriously hurt or crushed between the vessels.
I also read about the battle for Iwo Jima, where they had a large pallet with 24 wounded Marines in litters on it, and they were hoisting it onto a ship. The hoist gave way, and all the men went into the water. None were recovered.
RIP.
“Richardson had suffered from internal bleeding during the homeward leg of a two-week cruise “
Meaning she had an ulcer? I don’t understand why they thought sending a boat instead of a helicopter was going to get her the medical attention she needed fast enough?
I have two thoughts, OUCH (having been in 30 degree water for 10 seconds myself)(and glad it wasn’t 8 minutes). Two, were they really in such a hurry that they couldn’t have just STOPPED to transfer her or would that have had it’s own dangers? (i.e. giving directional control over the ship to the sea). I’m from the Air Force family and don’t know my Aft from Stern, so enlighten me.
If the ship waa in the Norwegian Fjords it is very close to land so a boat would get her to hospital in a very short time.
Put a line on the patient and lower her? Or at least have a line on her? It’s a wonder she wasn’t sucked into the screws.
In water at 26.6 degrees, it might take longer than that to convince me to go in after her.
ok. thanx
The NHS refused to pay for it? That'd be my guess.
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