I was on that flight; it was a medical emergency - I saw the poor soul in question being taken off the plane by paramedics, so this wasn't an explanation covering for a mechanical fault. I hope they get better and also manage to find a way out of Goose Bay once recovered - it won't be easy (or cheap, I presume).
We were actually only in Goose Bay for about an hour, mostly taking on fuel - the rest of the 4 hour delay was just time lost dumping fuel, landing & taking off. The captain had to try several fuel cards, none of which were accepted by the airport, but eventually they agreed to bill SRB direct for payment!
Luckily we had a spare pilot on board - presumably dead-heading? - so were able to continue to SFO rather than overnight in the military barracks.
Still rather confused about why not divert to Halifax, which is only a little further on and has better medical facilities and presumably more used to these things. I'm not going to go into details about the passenger, but I doubt 30mins or so extra flying would have mattered too much. Is Goose Bay a standard emergency stop for Virgin?
drew