The adventure began on 8/23/2015 when my father, several friends and I decided to go fishing for a week in a remote part of Alaska off of Kodiak Island. The exact location is referred to as Discovery Bay.This was the 4th time going to discovery bay for my dad and I. We would be dropped off by float plane and not to be picked up for 7 days. We would stay in a cabin with no running water, electricity or communications. I decided to borrow a ACR AquaLink PLB from a friend, just in case we ran into problems.

The second night into the trip, my friend came running to me and said my father was not doing well. When I ran into the cabin I saw my dad hunched over and unconscious with a pool of black throw up. I then located the emergency beacon activated it. In the mean time while waiting for help, my dad came to and went unconscious several time. I thought I was going to loose my dad, it was the longest 3 hours of my life. Three hours into the emergency we heard the sound of a helicopter. It was Kodiak Coast guard air rescue. A rescue swimmer jumped from the helicopter and swam to shore to assess my father. This was because there is nowhere to land in Discovery bay. The rescue swimmer determined that my dad needed to immediately to the hospital. They lifted my dad into the helicopter by basket and immediately flew him to a hospital in downtown Kodiak.

Once at the hospital, they assessed my dad in the emergency room and determined that he had lost a considerable amount of blood to a bleeding ulcer in his stomach. He just barely avoided needing a blood transfusion. If he had stayed at the cabin he would have bleed to death or had a heart attack because of lack of blood. After treatment and several weeks for his body to bring his blood levels back to normal, my dad is doing good. If it weren’t for the beacon and Kodiak coast guard I am not sure if my dad would be here today.