Ill Soviet Woman Airlifted From Ship

A Soviet woman complaining of abdominal pains was airlifted Monday by the Coast Guard from a Soviet trawler 200 miles off the coast and taken to a La Jolla hospital, where she suffered a miscarriage.

Diane Yohe, a spokeswoman for Scripps Memorial Hospital, identified the woman as Svetlana Alexandrovna Prokudina, 26, of Vladivostok.

Prokudina was apparently in the first six weeks of her pregnancy, Yohe said. “She came through in very good shape” and may be released today,) Yohe said.

“She is a little scared and wants to go back to her ship,” Yohe said. “She’s worried about how she’s going to get back.”

Prokudina had complained of pain for four days, when a doctor on the trawler decided to request medical assistance, Yohe said.

Prokudina, who has a husband and 3-year-old child in Vladivostok, is a food worker on the trawler, Gnevnyy. She does not speak English, but Yohe said that Bob Chernon, the hospital’s assistant personnel manager, is fluent in Russian and is acting as an interpreter for doctors.

Coast Guard spokesman Lt. Joe Riordan said Prokudina arrived at the Coast Guard Air Station at Harbor Island at 9:19 a.m. and was transported to the hospital by ambulance.

Riordan said officials at the Soviet Consulate in San Francisco had instructed Prokudina to contact them as soon as possible. Yohe said that hospital officials have not instituted special security measures for the woman and added that she has not been visited by U.S. government officials.