On Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024, the Coast Guard completed the medical evacuation of a 52-year-old man from Midway Atoll.
On Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024, the Coast Guard completed the medical evacuation of a 52-year-old man from Midway Atoll.
At 10 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024, morning the Coast Guard Joint Rescue Coordination Center Honolulu received notification from U.S. Fish and Wildlife personnel that a contractor fell from a roof and injured his ankle.
The Coast Guard’s duty flight surgeon recommended a medevac within 72 hours for further medical assessment and care. According to a release from the Coast Guard, the service dispatched an HC-130 Hercules airplane crew from Coast Guard Air Station Barbers Point that landed on Midway Atoll, brought the man aboard and transported him to the air station.
Emergency medical services personnel brought the man to The Queen’s Medical Center in Honolulu, where he was reportedly in stable condition.
Midway is roughly 1,300 miles northwest of Oahu and from 1941 until 1993 was the home of Naval Air Facility Midway Island, which played a crucial role in the Battle of Midway in June 1942. After the base closed, the island became a tourist destination for history buffs and visitors drawn by its unique ecology, but due to budget cuts its visitor program was shuttered after the last guests went in 2012.
Today the isolated atoll is home to a handful of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service staff and contract workers who manage a small set of facilities and oversee the wildlife refuge and war memorial.
