Eight Bells for Madeline “Sally” Hennessey: Rescued from Puerto Rico in 2017
Date Posted: April 3, 2022
Source: Lisa Suhay, Senior News Producer
Madeline "Sally" Hennessey, at right in printed shirt aboard the rescue plane from San Juan, Puerto Rico in 2017.

 

In 2017 Waterway Guide News shared the remarkable tale of how the U.S. Coast Guard and Eagle's Wings Pathfinders of Fla became the cavalry, charging into San Juan, Puerto Rico to save the day and an ailing grandma - Madeline “Sally” Hennessey when she was age 80. Mrs. Hennessey passed away peacefully in her sleep back home in New Jersey last week with her family at the age of 84.

The story of her rescue began after Hurricane Maria devastated the infrastructure of Puerto Rico. Sally, the mother of my childhood friend Beth Hennessey of Triangle, Virginia was in dire medical straights. When I was asked for help I naturally turned to the United States Coast Guard.

Sally had Carcinoid Cancer and the climate in Puerto Rico was one of the few places on Earth where she could breathe easy and enjoy her final years. She'd moved from the New Jersey shore to the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, a U.S. Territory in 2013.

After Hurricane Maria she was left in a chair in the lobby of her apartment building for a week listening to the building’s generator - which powered the specialized oxygen machine she could not live without - sputter and intermittently fail. She didn't sleep more than a few minutes at a stretch.

Sally lived at the Ashford Imperial Apartments, which is not assisted living. The nearby hospital was inaccessible and out of her Cancer medication. Local pharmacies were also devastated.

That meant that in addition to the power which could fail at any moment and stop her machine, the drug she needed to survive (a monthly shot) was not available. She was due for the next one in a few days. There was no hope of getting the shot in San Juan. This was an S.O.S. to Save Our Sally.

To their credit, FEMA made contact with Sally during a house-to-house survivor search. Responders explained that they were hampered by being unable to communicate with their own teams and resources there.

The next day Sally called her daughter to say, “Get me out. It’s so much worse than I knew.”

FEMA was overwhelmed and couldn't assist, which led me to reach out to the USCG Command Center in Washington D.C.

After hearing my request to help find a way to evacuate Granny Sally, Lt. Michael Arnett said pointedly, “You DO know you’re calling the Coast Guard, right?”

“Yes, Sir, I know exactly who I’m calling,” I told him cheerily. [PRO TIP: never be hostile to those you are asking for help] “I’m calling the people who can locate someone in the middle of an ocean in a squall, at night and pluck them from the water. You have a unit in San Juan. I believe in you.”

He quickly became a valuable advocate saying, “I just can’t leave you hanging without trying everything I can think of.”

Arnett led to Passenger Vessel Mass Rescue Operations Specialist Paul Culver in Sector Miami who, it turns out, is unflinching in the face of the impossible.

Culver coordinated getting Sally in touch with a humanitarian flight from the Eagles Wings Foundation’s Pathfinders Task Force, West Palm Beach, Fla.

Now that’s what I’m talking about when I tell someone that I believe in the Coast Guard. They didn't have a resource of their own, but Culver was quick to phone a lifeline and he would not quit. He bird-dogged every moment of the operation from end to end.

Eagle's Wings Pathfinders quickly shifted gears from a cargo plane to a Hocker 850 executive jet with a nurse aboard, making it their new mission to evacuate Sally and others on Tuesday. The flight, we would learn later, was funded by the Law Firm Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart & Shipley, P.A.

Before we knew it Sally was in Palm Beach International Airport where her family was waiting to get her to New Jersey where she would live out what she once called her "miracle days" with her family and friends.

Enjoying her grandchildren after returning home to New Jersey in 2017

I spoke with Sally many times from that day until her last. She remained grateful for the years of life that were extended by the kindness and persistence of strangers. A donation is being made in her name to the USCG Foundation. Her family encourages anyone who is moved by this story to do the same.

The Coast Guard Foundation provides scholarships for service members and their families to pursue college education, supply athletic equipment to keep them ready for their demanding jobs, support to the loved ones of those who perish in the line of duty, emergency aid so families devastated by natural disasters can rebuild their lives, and so much more.

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