One of the two Galwaymen rowing across the Atlantic in an attempt to smash a world record was forced to abandon the attempt after becoming ill.
Project Empower saw city-native Damian Browne and Fergus Farrell from Athenry set off from New York two weeks ago. However, on Sunday, Fergus had to be extracted on Sunday after 13 days at sea, after experiencing severe exhaustion.
After almost 13 successful days at sea Fergus had to be taken from the vessel Cushlamachree on Sunday, at 4.45pm Irish Time. Fergus is now doing well and has arrived in New York where he is awaiting transfer to a hospital where he will undergo tests.
Chris Martin who is operating as on-call land support officer for the team was contacted by Fergus on Sunday. Fergus had been experiencing severe exhaustion, and despite lots of rest was failing to recover.
He had started to experience tightness on the left side of his chest and had a very low blood oxygen percentage. After consultation with our medical consultants and the United States Coast Guard (USCG ) flight surgeon, it was decided that Fergus should be extracted with all possible speed.
Thankfully the weather conditions in the area were benign with light winds and small swells of around 1m. This allowed the USCG to consider multiple ways to get Fergus back to land as swiftly as possible including extraction by commercial vessel who were nearby and willing to assist a fellow seafarer in distress.
By 15:48 Irish Time the Singapore-flagged tanker, the Hafnia Shenzhen had responded to the USCG request for assistance, had diverted to the area and was approaching the Cushlamachree. Shortly afterwards and less than four hours after the first call, Fergus was brought onboard using the gang plank and taken to the medical room for further assessment and treatment.
He responded well to initial treatment onboard the Hafnia Shenzhen and the decision was made not to airlift him by USCG or Navy helicopter to hospital electing instead for him to remain onboard the Hafnia Shenzhen until she docked in New York.
Hafnia Shenzhen docked in New York on Tuesday morning and he is now awaiting disembarkation when he will be immediately transferred by Paul Cleary friend of Project Empower, to hospital in New York where he will undergo tests and be assessed.
Fergus is hugely disappointed at having to leave Cushlamachree but understands that his and Damian’s health and safety has, and always will be the primary concern for Project Empower.
Project Empower would like to sincerely and genuinely thank the staff at the USCG District 1 RCC, USCG Sector New York and Captain Sanjay Karki and crew of the Hafnia Shenzhen for their rapid response, expertise and kindness in dealing with this situation as professionally and courteously as they did.
However, the project continues and Damian Browne, Project Empower founder has chosen to remain with Cushlamachree and will now row her solo to Galway over the coming weeks. Damian is hugely experienced in this regard as he has previously rowed the Atlantic solo from the Canary Islands to Antigua.
Speaking on this unfortunate turn of events, Damian said that Project Empower was not planned this way.
“None of us wanted it to be this way. Gussy and I were supposed to do this together and row into Galway Docks together, I’m so sorry that I won’t get to finish this with him,” he said.
Damian has made incredible progress over the past couple of days so much so that Cushlamachree has clocked her best distance days since the expedition began. This is no small part due to the massive contribution Fergus made to getting Cushlamachree into the Gulf Stream.
The journey can be followed at www.projectempower.ie and on the Project Empower social medias.
