07/08/08 An Injured Rev. Bercovici says, "I was hearing things, and seeing monsters and goblins. I was pretty crazy."

Rye vacationer recounts cruise-ship rescue

By Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy
Journal News

RYE - Cliff Jaeger, a longtime city resident, had just finished lunch on his second day aboard the Norwegian Dawn cruise ship to Bermuda when he heard the news.

The 965-foot cruise ship was diverting course after receiving a distress call from the U.S. Coast Guard to align itself alongside a 40-foot sailboat and rescue an ill sailor....

...Within 12 hours of rescuing Giglia, the cruise ship was notified of another, potentially more serious, injury on the sailboat Misty, approximately 260 miles south of Montauk.

The Rev. Hillary Bercovici, 55, of Greenwich, Conn., a crew member aboard the Misty, which also was coming back from the Bermuda race, sustained a head injury and was losing consciousness. The Norwegian Dawn, 32 miles away, was the closest to the ship.

The cruise ship found the vessel, lowered a rescue boat with the same three crew members manning it, and took Bercovici onto the ship, where he received immediate medical attention, including five stitches to the forehead.

"I was hearing things, and seeing monsters and goblins," said Bercovici, an Episcopal priest and a psychotherapist in private practice. "I was pretty crazy. I had a big gash on my forehead, and I was hallucinating."....

Hillary Bercovici is the Scholar-in-Residence at Trinity Church

Hillary is a native New Yorker and former NYC-EMS Paramedic who worked in Harlem and the South Bronx before entering seminary and graduate school. An Episcopal priest in parish ministry since 1984, he holds an interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Psychology & Theology and maintains a part-time private practice of pastoral psychotherapy here in Greenwich.

Hillary and his family live in Greenwich, where his wife, Cilla, teaches math, and they have two daughters, Caitlin & Elizabeth. An avid sailor and scuba diver, Hillary also enjoys fresh and saltwater fly-fishing.

Click here to learn more about Hillary's work with Trinity Institute.

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