{"id":296980,"date":"2026-02-22T18:39:32","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T18:39:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/296980\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T18:39:32","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T18:39:32","slug":"danish-military-evacuates-u-s-submariner-who-needed-urgent-medical-care-off-greenland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/296980\/","title":{"rendered":"Danish military evacuates U.S. submariner who needed urgent medical care off Greenland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Denmark\u2019s military said its arctic command forces evacuated a crew member of a U.S. submarine\u00a0off the coast of Greenland<\/a>\u00a0for urgent medical treatment.<\/p>\n

The Danish Joint Arctic Command, on its Facebook page, said the crew member was evacuated on Saturday some 7 nautical miles (8 miles; 13 kilometers) off Nuuk \u2014 the capital of the vast, ice-covered territory \u2014 and transferred to a hospital in the city. The crew member was retrieved by a Danish Seahawk helicopter that had been deployed on an inspection ship.<\/p>\n

Also late Saturday,\u00a0U.S. President Donald Trump<\/a>\u00a0announced plans to deploy a hospital ship to the Danish autonomous territory of Greenland, alleging that many people there are sick and not receiving care \u2014 prompting a defense of Denmark\u2019s health care system from Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorking with the fantastic Governor of Louisiana, Jeff Landry, we are going to send a great hospital boat to Greenland to take care of the many people who are sick, and not being taken care of there. It\u2019s on the way!!!\u201d Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, referring to his special envoy for Greenland.<\/p>\n

Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen, speaking to public broadcaster DR, said Danish authorities had not been informed that the ship was on its way.<\/p>\n

The historically strong bilateral ties after World War II between NATO allies Denmark and the United States\u00a0have come under severe strain<\/a>\u00a0in recent months as Trump ratcheted up talk of a possible U.S. takeover of the mineral-rich and strategically located Arctic island.<\/p>\n

Frederiksen defended Denmark\u2019s health care system on Sunday, writing on Facebook that she was \u201chappy to live in a country where there is free and equal access to health for all. Where it\u2019s not insurances and wealth that determine whether you get proper treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have the same approach in Greenland,\u201d she said, before adding: \u201cHappy Sunday to you all\u201d in front of a blushing, smiling emoji.<\/p>\n

Aaja Chemnitz, one of the two Greenlandic politicians in the Danish parliament, wrote on Facebook: \u201cDonald Trump wants to send a poorly maintained hospital ship to Greenland. It seems rather desperate and does not contribute to the permanent and sustainable strengthening of the healthcare system that we need.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother day. Another crazy news story,\u201d she wrote in front of a smiley face emoji.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Denmark\u2019s military said its arctic command forces evacuated a crew member of a U.S. submarine\u00a0off the coast of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296981,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[8560,134,527,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-296980","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-greenland","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-healthcare","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}