Indian Coast Guard rescues injured Myanmar sailor from vessel in mid-sea

In a first, an indigenous Advanced Light Helicopter from Bhubaneswar has undertaken an extremely long-range Medical Evacuation and rescued a Myanmar sailor from mid-sea on Monday.

The Myanmar national identified as Than Htike Lwin was rescued from onboard MT GB Venture which reached near Sagar Island from Singapore.

As per sources, the Indian Coast Guard personnel received input from Sagar VTMS regarding an injury to a Myanmari crew onboard MT GB Venture today morning.

After a detailed assessment and discussion with the master, the condition of the patient was assessed to be critical, requiring medical evacuation (MEDEVAC). 

Later, the coast guard team launched an operation at 8.55 am today and arrived at the vessel which was 300 km away from Bhubaneswar. 

The patient was subsequently evacuated from the vessel. The patient suffered injuries to his abdomen due to impact by hydraulic oil of a windlass Vessel in a chemical tanker. 

The patient was admitted to a private hospital in Bhubaneswar. 

“First time indigenous Advanced Light Helicopter from Bhubaneswar has undertaken an extremely long range Medical Evacuation from the sea,” the Indian Coast Guard said in a statement. 

“We received a message around 8.30am today for an emergency MEDEVAC. As our aircraft is kept in readiness for search and rescue operation, we took off at 9am. Our aircraft reached near the merchant vessel at 10.10am and accessed the situation and rescued the patient,” said Amit Srivastav, an officer of Indian Coast Guard. 

Reported by Jagdish Das, OTV