Medical alert July 1999

[Lynda Bradford]

A report in the The Herald newspaper 23 July 1999 tells how the QE2 was at the centre of a medical alert when a passenger's dialysis machine had a technical failure. 

The family of the young man, aged 26 who required kidney dialysis had been delighted to cruise on QE2, especially as their booking on another cruise line had been refused, because of the medical condition.

When the dialysis machine failed, the suppliers rushed a replacement to Peterhead, but when it became evident that the ship could not dock at Peterhead, because of severe weather conditions, this gave the family great cause for concern.  Fortunately, the Pilot boat came to the rescue and the young man and his family continued with the cruise. 

Peterhead's economy may have lost out on the spend from QE2 passengers, but because of the fame of QE2 many day trippers had visited the town in the hope of seeing QE2. 

[Pete Hamill]

We were on board during that event - and had no idea what was unfolding!
As mentioned, the weather was too bad to get ashore, but we remained at anchor because the Red Arrows were due in the afternoon.

In those days, I had a video camera and captured a fair bit of footage.
I have attached a couple of screen grabs (please excuse the low quality as these were screen captures of a video conversion).
The first shows Peterhead lifeboat which I suspect may have been the vessel that brought the spare machine rather than the pilot boat and a general shot of the Red Arrows.

[June Ingram]

Great story with an awesome outcome !

[Lynda Bradford]

Thanks Pete for posting your recollection of the medical alert and the photos.  It is always good to get first hand news!