Many international patients come to North Carolina seeking the finest medical care. But not many of them have flippers and a shell.

The patient, who arrived at Raligh-Durham International Airport on Thursday, is a Kemp's Ridleys sea turtle named "Wee Willie" - that's short for Willamena - who was found stranded on a beach in England in January 2007. Her rescuers think she was a victim of a storm at sea that sent her off her normal trek up and down the eastern U.S. coast.

After two years of rehabilitation at the Weymouth Sealife Park, Willie has been brought back to the U.S. for care at the world renowned Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehab Center at Topsail Beach.

Jean Beasley, director of the center, said there are currently 37 sea turtles residing at the center. Of the five species of sea turtle, the center has three in residence. Among them, two other Kemp's Ridley turtles like Wee Willie.

"It isn't that rare for sea turtles to be found in the U.K, but they're usually already dead," she said. "And they're usually most likely loggerheads. It was quite unusual for it to be a Kemp's Ridleys, and for it to still be alive."

Willie is between six and eight years old and weighs in at just about 25 pounds. Though she is small enough now to fit in a plastic chest carried by two female volunteers, Beasley said Willie won't be so "wee" when she is fully grown. She will grow to around 100 pounds, still small by sea turtle standards.

Dr. Craig Harms of the N.C. State College of Veterinary Medicine oversees the medical care of sea turtles at the Rescue Center and other sanctuaries along the North Carolina coast. A cargo hangar served as a makeshift exam room upon Willie's arrival in the Triangle.

"She's in really good shape," he said. "She's filled out really nicely from when she was first stranded."

Since she made the trip in a crate, rather than her usual watery habitat, Harms and his assistants gave Willie an IV of fluid for the two-hour trip to Topsail Island, where she will likely be released into the Atlantic by mid-June.

"She had a great visit to the U.K., but we don't want her swimming back over there," said Beasley. "So we are going to be walking her on the beach at Topsail Island, getting her access to that beach so that she can reset her GPS."

Willie's story has caught the attention of the British public. She was accompanied on her transatlantic journey home by a film crew from the BBC that is recording her journey back into the wild.

Click on the video link above to see and hear more about Wee Willie.