Cruise Ship Passenger’s Survival a ‘Miracle’ After Medical Emergency

An Australian cruise ship passenger is lucky to be alive after surviving a “terrifying medical emergency at sea,” medics have said.

Joshua Gul, 55, from the town of Buderim in Queensland, was on board the Carnival cruise ship Encounter with 15 family members last month when his health took a turn for the worse, per a Wednesday, July 16 news release shared by the Mackay Hospital and Health Service.

Gul had been “excited for a four-night adventure to the magical Whitsundays to celebrate his father’s 80th birthday,” the post stated, adding that the family had boarded the cruise ship in Brisbane on June 24.

The hospital service said that on day two, the vacation at sea “took a very unexpected and serious turn,” with Gul waking at 6 a.m. local time “with radiating pain in his left hand and arm, which grew quickly in intensity” while the ship was anchored offshore at Airlie Beach.

Gul’s wife of 24 years, Nancy, quickly alerted family members in the cabin next door, per the release.

“Thankfully, they quickly rang the onboard medical team who arrived at our cabin within five minutes,” she said, adding, “When the doctor and nurses arrived, he was already unconscious and had gone into cardiac arrest – they had to start resuscitation immediately; it all happened so fast.”

Medics performed CPR on Gul for 30 minutes while his wife, who described the incident as a “terrifying ordeal,” and 16-year-old daughter stood by, per the post.

Gul was taken to Proserpine Hospital in Proserpine in Queensland’s Whitsunday Region by shuttle boat and then by ambulance, before he was “medically evacuated by rescue helicopter from Proserpine Hospital to Mackay Base Hospital, arriving by 1 p.m. and was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU),” the release stated.

The “gravely ill” cruise ship passenger was then placed in an induced coma and spent the next five days being ventilated, the hospital service explained, adding that his family decided to leave the cruise and headed to his bedside.

Gul woke up on his fifth day in the hospital, before undergoing an angiogram at the hospital’s Cardiac Catheter Lab (CCL) two days later. The angiogram “identified the potential blockage and narrowing of blood vessels in his heart as the cause of his cardiac episode,” the release noted.

“We’ve been extremely impressed by the level of care he’s had here in Mackay – it’s exceeded our expectations,” Nancy said, per the post.

Nancy said that her husband had been “in very, very good hands,” adding, “That gave me some positivity in what was a very dark time for us.”

Nancy said it’s an “absolute miracle” that her husband had woken up in the hospital without any cognitive impairment, crediting “the initial rapid response by the cruise ship medical team, an efficient and fast retrieval process, combined with his excellent treatment in Mackay and Proserpine Hospitals, for his survival,” the release stated.

“Joshua was very lucky in what was an incredibly unlucky situation for us,” she shared.

“If this cardiac episode had happened at home and not on the cruise ship in the Whitsundays, Joshua wouldn’t have had such rapid access to care like he did, and he probably wouldn’t have made it,” Nancy continued.

Mackay Base Hospital ICU director Stephen Luke insisted, “CPR and defibrillation on the cruise ship truly saved his life.”

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Despite his ordeal, Gul said he hasn’t ruled out another cruise ship vacation in the future.

“I’ll be back though; I was having a great time on the ship … but I was on a shuttle boat, had my first ride in a helicopter as well as an ambulance trip – and I missed all of it as I was unconscious,” he said, per the post.

Carnival Cruise Line and the Mackay Hospital and Health Service didn’t immediately respond after being contacted by PEOPLE for additional information. PEOPLE has also reached out to Gul for an update on his recovery.