News Release

PORTSMOUTH, Va. - A Coast Guard helicopter crew medically evacuated two men Saturday from a dive boat about 30 miles east of Virginia Beach.

The crew of the dive boat Miss Lindsey called Sector Hampton Roads watchstanders at 1 p.m., after a 65-year-old man and 19-year-old man surfaced from a dive.  They reported the 65-year-old was having problems and a Coast Guard flight surgeon recommended a medevac.

An Air Station Elizabeth City MH-60T Jayhawk helicopter crew arrived and lowered a rescue swimmer to check on the man.  They hoisted him to the helicopter and took him to Sentara Leigh Hospital in Norfolk, due to their hyperbaric capabilities.

About half way to the hospital the dive boat crew called again, reporting that the 19-year-old had started displaying the same symptoms.  The Jayhawk crew dropped off the older man at 2 p.m. and returned to the boat to medevac the other diver.  They were able to pick up the younger man and return to the hospital by about 2:45 p.m.

The 65-year-old man was recently reported to be in critical condition.

This was the third diving incident in about three hours in the Coast Guard's 5th District.  A 45-year-old man in North Carolina was taken to Carteret General Hospital with symptoms of decompression sickness after his dive at about 10 a.m.