Australian icebreaker evacuates sick Antarctic worker to hospital after 2-week ocean voyage

A seriously ill man reached an Australian hospital Friday on an icebreaker after traveling 4,800 kilometers through rough and ice-jammed seas from Australia's Davis Station.

The Australian Antarctic Division said in a statement that the patient had been transferred by ambulance from the icebreaker, Aurora Australis, to the Royal Hobart Hospital in Australia's southern island state of Tasmania where he remained in serious but stable condition.

An emergency call to evacuate the man was made on March 19. Aurora Australis the icebreaker which had left the station two days earlier, was forced to turn back to rescue the patient after he suffered a medical emergency at the remote Antarctic base, where he had been intending to spend the upcoming southern hemisphere winter.

It took the ship two days to reach the station, and officials had to wait for a break in snow showers so that the patient could be flown across sea ice via helicopter onto the icebreaker on March 22.

The patient was cared for by the ship's doctor with the help of distant specialists using telecommunications equipment designed for remote medical examinations, the statement said.

According to the medical personnel with the Australian Antarctic Division, the patient's condition has not deteriorated during the long voyage though still needs ongoing medical treatment.

Authorities have released no personal details about the man and have not revealed the nature of his medical emergency. Endi