Man severs hand aboard trawler

ANCHORAGE (AP) -- A man severed his hand while working on a commercial fishing vessel in the Bering sea, the Coast Guard said.

A Coast Guard helicopter crew picked up Patrick Lavlu and transported him to Adak about 3 a.m. Friday. Lavlu, 37, severed his right hand shortly before 4 p.m. Thursday while cutting fish with a saw aboard the 238-foot factory trawler Alaska Juris, the Coast Guard said.

Crew members applied a tourniquet and dressed the wound. The crew gave Lavlu morphine every 15 minutes, following instructions from a Coast Guard flight surgeon.

The Seattle-based trawler was located about 100 miles west of Adak.

The Coast Guard sent a rescue crew from St. Paul Island to Adak, 390 flight miles away. From there, Lavlu was flown by air ambulance to Anchorage, according to the Coast Guard.