At 1.10pm on Tuesday, a sick foreign crew member of a ship MSC ESTHI was safely brought back to the mainland for treatment.

A local doctor giving medical examinations for the foreign victim before bringing him back to the mainland for further treatment

Earlier, on Tuesday morning, 50-year-old crewmember Dorde Perunovic was reported to be in a deep coma.

At that time, his ship MSC ESTHI from Panama, which was en route from Singapore to China, was passing through the Viet Nam waters at latitude 15°09’N and longitude 111°44’E on the south of the Hoang Sa (Paracel) Archipelago.

The other crewmembers onboard immediately gave initial first aid to the victim, and mad a phone call to the Viet Nam Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (Viet Nam MRCC) in order to ask for help.

After receiving a report about distressed foreign crew member at 6.50am on Tuesday, Viet Nam MRCC immediately asked the Da Nang Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre to send out its rescue ship SAR 412, carrying doctors from the city’s Emergency Centre 115, to help the victim.

At 9.45am on the same day, SAR 412 reached the foreign ship, and the patient was, then, transferred to the rescue ship for first aid. After that, the victim was quickly brought back to the mainland for further treatment at a local hospital.