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Sick baby and her family aboard Navy frigate after 129th Rescue Wing rescue

  • Published
  • By Steve Marshall
  • National Guard Bureau
A California family stranded in choppy waters of the Pacific Ocean with a very ill baby girl was safely aboard a Navy ship Monday, enroute to San Diego, military spokesmen said.

The family boarded the USS Vandegrift after pararescuemen from the 129th Rescue Wing reached the boat Thursday night, assessed and stabilized the baby.

The ill girl, identified by the Associated Press as Lyra Kaufman, 1, was in stable condition aboard the Navy vessel. Sailors assisted her and her family aboard the ship Sunday morning.

The family includes her sister, Cora, 3, and parents, Charlette and Eric Kaufman. The Kaufmans were attempting a round-the-world voyage on their 36-foot sailboat Rebel Heart, when the boat became disabled just as Lyra's condition worsened.

Authorities as of Monday still weren't sure what Illness the little girl has. Her symptoms included fever and a rash over most of her body.

Because the sailboat was taking on so much water, authorities were sinking it, the AP reported.

The 129th Rescue Wing was alerted to the emergency by the Coast Guard, which received a satellite distress call from the Kaufmans after their vessel lost steering and communications about 900 nautical miles off the coast of Mexico.