A seriously injured fisherman had to be airlifted to hospital from a trawler off the Kerry coast on Saturday night.
The alarm was raised at around 7.00pm on Saturday when the skipper of the French fishing vessel contacted the Irish Coast Guard to request assistance.
The vessel’s captain reported that a crew member had been injured and required medical assistance.
It’s understood that the fisherman in his 40s had sustained crush injuries to his chest.
Watch officers at the Irish Coast Guard’s marine rescue sub centre on Valentia Island in Kerry mounted an operation to safely evacuate the casualty from the vessel.
The trawler's skipper did not initially believe that his colleague’s injuries were serious enough to warrant an emergency medical evacuation by helicopter so requested that the man be removed from the vessel by lifeboat.
The Valentia RNLI lifeboat was tasked and launched and proceeded to rendezvous with the vessel which, at the time, was about 20 kilometres off the Blasket Islands in Kerry.
The intention was to take the casualty ashore on board the lifeboat and have him transported to hospital by road ambulance.
On arrival at the scene, crew members from the all-weather lifeboat boarded the fishing trawler and were taken below deck to the casualty.
It was quickly established, after assessing his injuries, that the crew member was more seriously injured than previously thought.
The lifeboat crew had been in constant radio contact with the marine rescue sub centre and advised them of the more serious situation and that assistance from a helicopter would be required.
At around 9.30pm, the Irish Coast Guard helicopter took off from its base at Shannon Airport and routed directly to meet the vessel.
Rescue 115 rendezvoused with the trawler west of the Blasket Islands at around 10.10pm.
The helicopter’s winchman/paramedic was lowered onto the deck of the vessel and taken below deck to the casualty.
The aircraft hovered over the vessel for more than an hour while the Coast Guard paramedic assessed, treated and stabilised the injured man.
With the help of the vessel’s crew, the casualty was carried onto the deck and winched on board the helicopter.
The crew of Rescue 115 left the scene at around 11.10pm and began to route towards University Hospital Limerick however the crew opted instead to take the injured man to University Hospital Tralee.
The helicopter landed in Tralee about 15 minutes later and handed the man into the care of the HSE.
