Sick down south

Amer Sports One needs to get crewman Keith Kilpatrick into medical care, due to a severe stomach problem

Amer Sports One's doctor Roger Nilson has alerted Volvo Race HQ that crewman Keith Kilpatrick is sick with a stomach illness.
American Kilpatrick is currently receiving antibiotics and morphine, and is on a saline drip and the boat's limited medications are now running out.

Amer Sports One, currently in sixth position, is approximately 1500 nautical miles south-west of Australia.

Volvo Ocean Race HQ has alerted the Australian Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre (AMRCC) and contacted the Australian Coastguard for assistance.

Amer Sports One is currently out of range for airborne medical evacuation but the AMRCC is looking at all the options available to assist Kilpatrick and his concerned crewmates. Director of race operations Michael Woods said the course of the Volvo Ocean Race had been planned with just this eventuality in mind. "Prior to the start of this race the Volvo Ocean Race Committee worked with the Australian Maritime Rescue Centre to bring the course within the two thousand mile maximum range of rescue facilities."

Nilson continues to monitor Kilpatrick's condition. Amer Sports One is the only boat to carry a medical doctor, and Roger Nilson has competed in this race five times.

Race chiropractor and medical co-ordinator Timo Malinen commented: "The boats have two ways of communicating with medical staff in these situations. The first is via email to one of the five doctors on the race’s medical committee, the other is to pick up the phone to Derriforth Hospital in Plymouth." This is an ex-Naval Hospital which specialises in telemedicine, including working with the Antarctic Survey, so they are well versed in the problems currently facing Amer Sports One as they plunge through the Southern Ocean.

Things must be serious for Nilson to want to divert the boat off its course. As another member of the medical committee, Tim Spalding, commented: "Our role is unusual in that whereas we would normally advise complete rest or whatever the appropriate treatment would be for a patient under normal circumstances; in this case we try to keep the boats racing unless there is a real medical emergency."

Whilst Kilpatrick may be fortunate to have a qualified doctor aboard, the downside is that satellite communication is patchy in this remote part of the Southern Ocean.