The Coast Guard has evacuated an ill passenger from a cruise ship about 180 miles (290 kilometres) south of Nantucket.
Officials say a 39-year-old man with symptoms of heart and kidney failure was taken from the Queen Mary II by helicopter on Saturday afternoon.
A Cape Cod-based MH-60 Jayhawk rescue crew was dispatched after the ship's doctor consulted with a Coast Guard flight surgeon.
The 992-foot (302-meter) Bermuda-flagged cruise ship headed toward Nantucket to shorten the distance for the evacuation.
Coast Guard Petty Officer Nicole Cook is the operations unit co-ordinator at the 1st Coast Guard District in Boston. She says a nurse from the ship accompanied the patient to a Boston hospital.
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