Medical emergency: Indian Coast Guard evacuates Myanmar national from tanker near Sagar in Bengal

Kolkata: Indian Coast Guard’s Kolkata headquarter, on Monday, shared that in a coordinated operation on 23 January, they evacuated a Myanmar national with a medical emergency from a Singapore motor tanker that was anchored near South of Sagar.

At about 06:30 am, a message was received from ICG’s Haldia headquarters intimating about a medical emergency onboard ‘MT GB Venture’ (Flag – Singapore), which was anchored position 40.5 Nm South of Sagar, due to a machinery breakdown. A crew member, Than Htike Lwin (Myanmar national) had sustained blunt trauma to his abdomen during maintenance on a hydraulic pipeline onboard. The individual complained of severe pain abdomen and experienced difficulty in breathing. The master of the vessel requested ICG for medical evacuation.

The Coast Guard operations team contacted the local agent of the vessel, seeking an update on the status of the distressed crew. The ICG’s medical officer at Haldia advised first aid to stabilize the patient’s condition. Considering the criticality of the situation, a Coast Guard’s advance light helicopter (ALH) was launched from Coast Guard Air Enclave Bhubaneshwar for evacuation. Meanwhile, two Coast Guard ships operating at sea were also diverted towards the motor tanker, for rendering assistance.

The helicopter arrived on the scene at about 10:10 am. The patient was safely evacuated at about 10:30 am. The helicopter proceeded to Bhubaneshwar and disembarked the patient at about 11:40 am. The injured person was thereafter admitted to a private hospital for further medical management.