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Navy whisks girl from cruise ship for surgery

An ailing 14-year-old Illinois girl on a Pacific Ocean cruise took an unscheduled side trip Saturday — she was plucked by helicopter from the deck of her cruise ship and flown to the carrier Ronald Reagan for emergency appendix surgery.

Laura Montero, who was vacationing with her family aboard Princess Cruise Lines’ 77,000-ton Dawn Princess, complained Friday of abdominal pain, the Navy said, as the ship sailed off the southern coast of Baja California. Doctors realized they couldn’t treat her with the ship’s onboard medical facilities, so the Dawn Princess’ crew issued a distress call. The closest ship that could help was the Reagan, on a training mission some 550 miles away.

Two HH-60H Seahawk helicopters of Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron 4 took off from the Reagan early Saturday morning, the Navy said, and rendezvoused with the Dawn Princess. Because the ship doesn’t have a flight deck, air crews hovered over the deck and lowered a rescue swimmer in a basket, who brought Montero into the helicopter. The helicopters returned to the Reagan, where Navy surgeons removed the girl’s appendix.

“She’s getting the best care and her prognosis for a full recovery is good,” said Cmdr. Theron Toole, the ship’s senior medical officer.

The Dawn Princess docked in San Diego on Sunday, and the Navy flew the girl’s mother out to the Reagan later that day aboard a C-2 Greyhound carrier onboard delivery flight, said Cmdr. Dora Lockwood, a spokeswoman for 3rd Fleet in San Diego.

The Reagan is due back in San Diego on Tuesday, so Montero and her mother will be able to move to a civilian hospital, Lockwood said.