Navy gives teen a lift, appendectomy at sea

SAN DIEGO — A teenager whose appendix ruptured at sea, hundreds of miles from help, got safely to shore Tuesday after an unusual rescue in which the Navy airlifted her from a cruise ship for emergency surgery.

Laura Montero, 14, fell ill aboard the Dawn Princess cruise ship off the coast of Baja California. The Bahamian-registered ship sent out a distress call Friday that was answered by the USS Ronald Reagan, which was on maneuvers about 500 miles away.

Montero, of Albion, Ill., appeared to be doing well Tuesday at Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego.

"I'd like to thank the captain of the Dawn Princess, the surgeon and the crew and everyone on the USS Ronald Reagan," she said. She added that she was usually "a tiny bit" scared of heights but hadn't been nervous when she was hoisted into the helicopter.

"I was in pain," she said.

The Reagan, a nuclear carrier, was the closest ship with a hospital facility, according to a news release. It steamed overnight toward the cruise ship, about 250 miles northwest of Cabo San Lucas when the call went out.

A helicopter lowered a medic onto the cruise-ship deck in a basket because there wasn't space to land, said pilot Lt. Cmdr. Gregory Leland.

Montero, who was on an antibiotic drip, was loaded into a litter basket, lifted into the helicopter and flown back to the Reagan for an appendectomy.