News from August 14, 2016…
When a 72-year old woman experienced trouble and had to be pulled from the pool of Royal Caribbean’s Anthem of the Seas cruise ship, the vessel made a hasty return back to port in Bayonne, New Jersey.
On Wednesday, guests witnessed the U.S. woman “having difficulty swimming in one of the ship’s pools” and was “helped out of the pool,” Royal Caribbean said today in a statement.
A Royal Caribbean spokesman said the woman was “debarked/medically evacuated” upon the cruise ship’s arrival back in port. Further details were not provided by the cruise line.
A Port Authority spokesperson confirmed a medical emergency had occurred.
According to a report on NJ.com…
A 29-year-old Philadelphia man who declined to be named said he and his wife were cruise passengers who witnessed part of what happened. He said the Anthem was about halfway through its return voyage from Bermuda to Bayonne at the time.
“When we arrived in the area, she had just been pulled from the water and was unresponsive and had a pale/purple look,” he said in an email.
Medical emergencies are relatively common aboard cruise ships as over 20 million passengers cruise annually. Many of those passengers can be described as elderly and incidences like this medical emergency can range from relatively minor to severe.
Generally, the cruise ships and their medical personnel respond quickly and appropriately to situations like this. We hope this particular passenger make a quick recovery.