BI woman grateful for support during medical emergency on ferry

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, May 27, 2026

On April 14, Bainbridge Island resident Teri Sinclair was planning to take the 11:30 a.m. ferry to Seattle for a doctor’s appointment and to get lunch when she experienced a medical emergency on the car deck.

“ I started to feel what I thought was indigestion, and I told Louann (Short, one of Sinclair’s friends who was with her during the emergency)…’well, it looks to me like we’re going to have to stop at Virginia Mason on our way to lunch.’ And just a few minutes later, I said, ‘forget that. Call 911,’” Sinclair said.

Soon afterwards, an announcement was made over the public address system for those with medical training to assist crewmembers with a medical emergency on the car deck.

“In the moment, it wasn’t even chaotic. I can just tell you that I felt at peace. You think that you’d be panicking and gasping. I couldn’t talk…and I was sweating at that point, but I just felt like, wow, all of these people here (are) helping. I just knew that I was being watched over,” she said.

Washington State Ferries’ crewmembers receive first aid training as part of emergency training. “Crew members receive training for medical emergencies as part of their mandated safety duties and emergency drills. Training includes first aid, CPR, and the use of Life Saving Appliances (LSA) and marine evacuation systems. Crew members are prepared for various scenarios to ensure the safety of passengers on vessels,” WSF spokesperson Dana Warr said.

Warr said the captain reported the emergency to the WSF operations center around 12:06 p.m., and terminal staff in Seattle at Colman Dock called for an aid unit, which was already on site.

A doctor soon arrived to provide emergency care and screened Sinclair for a stroke and administered baby Aspirin to help promote blood flow. After arriving in Seattle, Seattle Fire medical personnel met Sinclair at the ferry dock and transported her to Virginia Mason, where she underwent surgery, while Short drove Sinclair’s car to the hospital and met up with her.

“The EMTs came on board, loaded me on the gurney, and got me off and into the ambulance, where they immediately gave me Nitro [Nitroglycerin], which didn’t work, so they just rushed me up the street to Virginia Mason, and there they triaged me. They cleared the cath lab, and I was in the cath lab within just 10 minutes or so, and they operated and found a blood clot,” she said.

Sinclair said she had no prior warning leading up to the event, and after several days in the hospital, Sinclair was discharged and returned home to Bainbridge Island. Despite the stressful situation, Sinclair said she felt very supported both during the incident and afterwards by those around her. She said the event renewed her faith in human kindness, adding, “this is a very unique community, and people do come together. And boy, did I see it this time up front and personal,” she said.

Several days after the emergency, Sinclair posted on the Bainbridge Islanders Facebook page about the experience, in part to thank ferry crewmembers and the good Samaritans who stepped in and helped her and to apologize to other passengers for the delay. “I know a lot of people probably get upset about it, because then we delayed the ferry for everybody else, and that was the thing that I was concerned about. What about these people who are trying to get to the airport? What about these people who have an appointment? So that’s why I apologized,” she said.

WSF reported in April that crew members responded to 18 medical emergencies systemwide. Seattle Fire Department spokesperson Kaila Lafferty said so far in 2026, the department has responded to roughly 20 aid or medic calls at Colman Dock.

Sinclair said she’s anticipating making a full recovery, with the addition of new medications and plans to keep aspirin in her car. “The next time you see a redhead with a baseball cap on, that’s usually me driving around in my white bug convertible,” she said.