Starting with a lucky escape
US navy warship rescues sick baby from stricken boat 900 miles out to sea
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/06/us-warship-baby-sailboat-mexico
Parents call for help after one-year-old girl falls ill hundreds of miles from Mexican coast during round-the-world sailing trip
The girl's family – her parents and a three-year-old sister – were about 900 miles off Mexico on a trip around the world when they sent a satellite ping for help to the US Coast Guard on Thursday about her illness.
A family member said the Rebel Heart was owned by a San Diego couple, Charlotte and Eric Kaufman, whose daughter, Lyra, had developed a fever and a rash covering most of her body and was not responding to medication.
The California Air National Guard dispatched four rescuers, who parachuted into the water and reached the disabled vessel. The team was able to stabilise the girl and pointed the sailboat, which does not have steering or communication abilities, towards Mexico, the 129th Rescue Wing said in a statement.
Before the family left, Lyra had salmonella poisoning, but doctors cleared her to travel after she recovered, said Charlotte Kaufman's sister, Sariah Kay English.
English said she was told the vessel took on water every time the motor was turned on. It was now slowly moving using only the sails.
In other news several thousand children die from preventable diseases because of lack of adequate medical resources.
