Soviet Woman Is Stuck, Wants Back on Trawler

A Soviet woman who suffered a miscarriage at sea and was treated at a La Jolla hospital was eager to return to her trawler Tuesday as U.S. and Soviet officials tried to figure out whether to fly her home or take her back to the boat.

Svetlana Alexandrovna Prokudina was taken Monday by a Coast Guard helicopter from a Soviet fishing boat 200 miles off the coast to Scripps Memorial Hospital after she suffered abdominal pains. A doctor determined that Prokudina had suffered a miscarriage in her fifth or sixth week of pregnancy.

Prokudina, 26, was released from Scripps Memorial Tuesday, said hospital spokeswoman Diane Yohe, but because she no place to go she would probably remain in the hospital overnight. Several well-wishers have sent her flowers and teddy bears, Yohe added.

The Coast Guard said it is against its policy to fly Prokudina back to her ship and said the matter had been referred to the State Department. A State Department spokesman in Washington said that U.S. officials were in contact with their Soviet counterparts, but no decision had been made about how to deal with Prokudina’s dilemma.

However, Immigration and Naturalization Service District Director Jim Turnage said that the trawler’s shipping agents in San Francisco had told his office that arrangements were being made to fly Prokudina to Canada for an Aeroflot flight to her homeland.

Yohe said late Tuesday afternoon that Prokudina, after several fruitless attempts, was finally able to talk to officials at the Soviet Consulate in San Francisco. Galina Tishchenko, an operator at the consulate, said Soviet officials had “no information” to release about Prokudina’s status.

“They (Soviets) are telling her to be patient and she’s sitting here dressed and ready to leave,” said Yohe. “. . . It seems that what they want to do is to fly her back to Russia. But she wants to get back to her boat or she’ll lose her wages.”

Prokudina is the steward on the trawler Gnevnyy, said Yohe. Bob Chernon, hospital assistant personnel manager, is fluent in Russian and translated for doctors. According to Yohe, Prokudina said she began working on trawlers when she was 18. Her husband is a radio operator on another trawler and the couple has a 3-year-old child in Vladivostok, a Soviet port on the Sea of Japan.

Coast Guard spokesman Lt. Joe Riordan said that the trawler’s shipping agent was also investigating hiring a civilian boat or helicopter to take Prokudina to the trawler. Riordan said the trawler could request permission to dock in San Diego but the ship’s captain would have to go through a time-consuming application process with federal and local officials. In addition, Riordan said that the ship’s size--320 feet long--could present docking problem at the civilian piers, which are not normally equipped to handle boats that large.

Meanwhile, Yohe said that Prokudina has been amused by her sudden celebrity status.

“She saw her picture in the paper today and started to laugh. She didn’t think that her illness was going to be an international incident,” said Yohe.