The US Coast Guard received a call from Holland America's Zuiderdam at approximately 6pm Tuesday (September 29, 2009) while the ship was approximately 23 statute miles southwest of Long Beach (California). The ship was reporting that an 85-year-old man aboard had suffered a stroke and needed to be evacuated to a shoreside medical facility.
The Coast Guard dispatched an MH-65C helicopter from the Coast Guard Station at Los Angeles and arrived on-scene the scene 7:31 p.m. The patient was hoisted to the helicopter routinely and taken to a hospital in Torrance, California.
Zuiderdam had just departed from Los Angeles en route to Cabo San Lucas as part of its repositioning itinerary to Ft. Lauderdale where it will ultimately scheduled to arrive on October 14.
