Steward to Leave Hospital for Her Ship Today : Soviet Woman’s Mementos: Michael and Smokey

The Soviet ship’s steward who suffered a miscarriage at sea and was airlifted to a La Jolla hospital will be returned to her fishing trawler today and will be taking back the only mementos she wanted--albums by Michael Jackson and by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles.

Svetlana Alexandrovna Prokudina, 26, is scheduled to rejoin her ship at about 9 p.m. when it anchors 4.6 nautical miles off Point Loma. A local firm has been hired to transport Prokudina by launch to the trawler Gnevnyy, said Scripps Memorial Hospital spokeswoman Diane Yohe. Prokudina was treated at the hospital on Tuesday after a Coast Guard copter plucked her from the trawler flew her to shore.

“We asked her if there was anything special that she wanted to take back with her, and she said that all she really wanted was a Michael Jackson ‘Thriller’ album and an album by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles,” Yohe said. “One man brought her a children’s book to take to her son in the Soviet Union and a Lions Club member gave her a U.S. pin.”

Prokudina, who remained at the hospital overnight, cannot speak English. A hospital official who is fluent in Russian has been translating for her.

On Wednesday afternoon the trawler was 336 miles south of San Diego, and getting it to turn around to retrieve Prokudina was not an easy task, Yohe said.

Initially, officials at the Soviet Consulate in San Francisco had informed hospital officials that they were making arrangements to fly Prokudina to the Soviet Union. But the woman balked at that proposal and argued that she wanted to return to her ship because otherwise she would lose her wages.

Officials at the Soviet Embassy in Washington finally agreed to order the ship to turn around, Yohe said.

“She’s a spunky one. She talked to the embassy officials and told them in no uncertain terms that she wanted to go back to her ship. They finally got some reassurance from us that she was all right and agreed to send her back. We hope that her spunkiness does not get her in trouble,” Yohe said.

“When the consulate in San Francisco told her that they couldn’t get her back to the ship because they did not know where it was, she answered, ‘What’s the matter. Did you lose it?’ ”

Prokudina has spent most of her time in the United States watching television, Yohe said, adding that she found soap operas dramatic but was irritated by the commercials.

“She said that they don’t have commercials in Russia and she finds them very distracting. We told her that she will have to learn what the rest of us do during commercials--get up and get a beer or go use the restroom,” Yohe said.