A 34-year-old Filipino ship crewman who had suffered a life-threatening onboard fall is recovering in hospital after an extensive rescue operation attended to by the National Sea Rescue Institute on Friday.
According to NSRI spokesperson, Craig Lambinon, the patient is recovering well in the care of doctors and nurses, and he is expected to make a full recovery after the urgent medical evacuation at Gqeberha.
Lambinon said the ship’s captain informed NSRI that he had requested urgent medical assistance just after midday. “The ship’s medical crew were fighting to save the life of their fellow crewman who had sustained injuries in a fall onboard the ship, suffering critical life-threatening injuries, and who was not breathing.”
NSRI Gqeberha coxswain, Ian Gray, said on Wednesday, the duty crew was activated to attend to the emergency on a 300-metre motor vessel bulk carrier heading towards Gqeberha.
“The motor vessel, restricted to a speed of seven knots, had reportedly been able to increase speed to 10 knots - heading towards Gqeberha... at best speed,” said Gray.
The NSRI Gqeberha duty controllers requested the assistance of the volunteer NSRI duty crew, volunteer NSRI Gqeberha MEX (Maritime Extrication) crew, and EC Government Health EMS ALS (Advanced Life Support) rescue paramedics, to respond expeditiously.
“Racing against time - as much information about the patient's medical condition and the size and structural configuration of the ship was collected by our NSRI Gqeberha duty controllers for there to be no further delays to deliver urgent advanced life support medical intervention, by NSRI and EMS, to the critically injured man.
“By that stage, NSRI was made aware that the ship's captain had reported that his medical crew had managed to restore spontaneous breathing to the patient, a 34-year-old seaman from the Philippines, but confirming that the patient remained in a critical condition, with the ship's medical crew fighting to save his life,” stated Gray.
He said it quickly became obvious that the medical evacuation would be a challenging emergency operation based on the size of the motor vessel and the critical nature of the injuries sustained by the casualty.
“While responding towards the casualty ship, NSRI learned that the patient had fallen 6 metres down a flight of stairs, landing on a hard surface, sustaining multiple life-threatening injuries, and while he had initially stopped breathing, the ship's medical crew had restored spontaneous breathing to the patient in resuscitation efforts,” said Gray.
The ship's medical crew were fighting to save his life and they had not moved him, treating him where he had landed, despite challenging confined spaces.
The crew was 35 nautical miles offshore, in Algoa Bay, in 2.5-metre sea swells, where the rescue paramedics and technicians were transferred onto the ship.
The rescue paramedics immediately commenced Advanced Life Support medical treatment while technicians investigated the best and safest options to extricate the injured man from the confined spaces.
“The patient was secured onto a spinal trauma board and into a Stokes basket stretcher, while intense and extensive medical treatment continued. The patient was then brought above board, having hauled him almost three stories vertically, in a challenging high-angle technical configured rope extrication method.
“The patient was transported to the hospital by EMS ambulance, in a serious but stable condition, where he remains in the care of doctors and nurses in the ICU. The efforts of our NSRI crew, the EMS rescue paramedics, and the ship's crew, in challenging conditions, to save the life of the casualty, are commended,” said Gray.
chevon.booysen@inl.co.za