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Facing an unexpected surge in ambulance arrivals at the USNS Comfort hospital ship docked in New York City -- some running dangerously low on oxygen -- Marines on security detail ran hundreds of yards down the pier carrying fresh tanks, the Navy said this week.

On a busy day, the Comfort receives about one ambulance every half hour. But last Tuesday, due to an emergency evacuation of a nearby hospital, 10 ambulances raced toward Pier 90 in Lower Manhattan at the same time, according to a Navy news release.

The government sent the Comfort to New York at the end of March to help bolster local hospitals and offer relief amid the coronavirus outbreak that has pushed health care systems to the brink.

U.S. Marine Sgt. Austin Loppe, left, and U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Colton Flach, right, are assigned to II Marine Expeditionary Force as part of a Marine security detachment supporting the USNS Comfort. (U.S. Navy photo by Ensign James Caliva)

Coordinating traffic and security screening with the NYPD at the entrance to the pier were U.S. Marine Sgt. Austin Loppe and his security team, according to the release.

They encountered a patient in one of the ambulances in deteriorating condition and whose oxygen tank was dangerously low.

“Even just going a couple minutes without oxygen, the human brain starts losing function and having permanent brain damage,” Loppe said. “So that wasn’t something that myself or any of my Marines were willing to let happen to an American citizen.”

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The Marines halted the other ambulances and rushed the critical patient’s arrival, getting the ambulance to the front of the line for emergency care, according to authorities.

Then another patient arrived low on oxygen, and as the Marines began prioritizing the order in which the patients could board the vessel, they decided that they should bring oxygen tanks down to their end of the gigantic pier.

So they went to get them, running hundreds of yards to pick them up -- and then bring them back to the patients.

Medical grade oxygen tanks utilized by the patient transport team aboard the USNS Comfor hospital ship. (U.S. Navy photo by Ensign James Caliva)

“They sprinted down the NYC pier to deliver oxygen -- saving a patient's life,” Sen. Chuck Schumer tweeted in response to the Marines’ actions. “So grateful to these service members, medical workers, and all frontline workers.”

The Marines taking part in the USNS Comfort security team are based in Camp Lejeune, N.C., according to authorities. They had been training for an overseas deployment before they were sent to New York.

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Alan Reyes, a rear admiral in the Navy Reserve and the chief operating officer of the USO, told Fox News earlier this week that he had deployed aboard the USNS Comfort a decade ago in response to a devastating earthquake in Haiti.

“Watching the Comfort pull into New York Harbor was a really poignant moment for me,” he said, noting that the Navy’s massive hospital ships are a sign of hope and relief.

“There’s heroes out there, and we're just really blessed that they’re doing what they’re doing, and we have to do what we can to support them,” he added.