A 23-year-old woman was rescued almost 400 miles off the California coast on Monday after accidentally ingesting poison while aboard a sailboat.
Multiple agencies responded to the incident, including the U.S. Coast Guard and the San Francisco Fire Department. It happened at about 1:45 p.m. roughly 380 miles west of Bodega Bay, officials said in Facebook post.
The captain of the boat notified the Coast Guard that a woman on the vessel inadvertently ingested antifreeze, as reported by KPIX.
Due to the range of Coast Guard helicopters in the Bay Area, a long-range helicopter out of San Diego was forced to respond to the distress call, which required a stop in San Francisco for a crew change and refueling before eventually setting off for the sailboat.
A Coast Guard cutter then trailed the helicopter and served as a floating refueling stop along the way, enabling first responders to get to the victim at 2:15 a.m. Tuesday.
"This was a highly complex medical evacuation performed at night, off a small sailboat, hundreds of miles offshore that tested the limits of our crews and equipment," mission coordinator Douglas Samp told the station. "The sailor’s life was saved by the dedicated teamwork of the San Francisco Fire Department and Coast Guard personnel across eight different units."
The woman was taken to a San Francisco hospital in stable condition.
It wasn’t immediately clear how she accidentally ingested the antifreeze.
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