Northland winch rescue: Patient airlifted from fishing vessel near Spirits Bay

A patient needed to be airlifted from a charter fishing boat off the remote Northland coast before darkness fell after suffering a medical event.

Crews were notified just before 6pm on Sunday, February 16 that a person aboard a fishing vessel near Spirits Bay needed urgent medical evacuation.

The team left Whangārei and flew to Kaitāia Hospital where they refuelled before continuing north to rendezvous with the vessel.

Northland Rescue Helicopter hoist operator and critical care paramedic Paul Davis said they needed to complete the mission before dark because undertaking the rescue in the dark was riskier.

Luckily a tailwind enabled the crew to get to the vessel in the nick of time.

The helicopter managed to get in touch with the vessel skipper via radio to run through the rescue plan which would involve maintaining the correct speed.

The charter boat was also closer to the mainland than they expected and sea conditions were good with 1-2m swells and satisfactory visibility, Davis said.

“Once we got eyes on the vessel we undertook a risk analysis just to determine the best approach to undertake.”

He said the skipper did an “excellent job” of operating their vessel so rescue swimmer and intensive care paramedic Blake Murray could reach them.

“We had reasonably good information in regards to the patient’s condition, so it was just a very quick reassessment with our rescue swimmer and then the retrieval.”

The patient was placed in a device specifically designed for helicopter winch rescues before Murray attached himself to the harness and the winch was deployed.

“It all went extremely well.”

The “very grateful” patient was transported to Whangārei Base Hospital with no complications by 9pm.

Davis said winch rescues were challenging because they had to complete it on and off a moving vessel.

“It was relatively straightforward but it takes a lot of training and experience for these rescues to be undertaken smoothly.”

That was one of the reasons Northland Rescue Helicopter committed so much time to practising winch rescues, he said.

As of Monday, Northland Rescue Helicopter has performed 195 missions.

Between Friday and Sunday there were 12 missions, including six on Friday alone.

Brodie Stone covers crime and emergency for the Northern Advocate. She has spent most of her life in Whangārei and is passionate about delving into issues that matter to Northlanders and beyond.