Life-or-death drama plays out on Cunard's Queen Victoria

mercedes · April 22, 2009

Cunard's one-year-old Queen Victoria was the scene of a dramatic rescue today after a woman in need of a kidney transplant learned a donor organ had become available back on land.

England's Daily Mail reports Judy Stockwell, 64, of England, had signed up for the voyage as a "last holiday" after waiting two years for a kidney transplant and concluding a suitable kidney might never be found. But just hours after the ship steamed away from England late on Monday, word reached the vessel that an organ suddenly had become available.

The Daily Mail says Stockwell was told she had just five hours to reach the hospital in Cambridge, England where the kidney was available, prompting an all-hands-on-deck effort on the ship. At the time the vessel was 50 miles off the coast of Cornwall.

The news outlet says the Victoria's captain reached the Royal Navy, which scrambled a sea helicopter that arrived within an hour to scoop Stockwell up in a winch. The helicopter then raced her hundreds of miles to an airport near the hospital.

"I'm so grateful to all those involved," Stockwell told the Daily Mail just minutes before going into surgery earlier today. "We knew we had to get to the hospital and everyone just rose to the occasion."