Over the past few days the Maritime Rescue and Co-ordination Centre (MRCC) has been involved in evacuating crewmembers from two vessels.
On Friday the 4th December at 15h49 the master of a vessel, which was only 18 nautical miles off Cape Town, contacted the MRCC requesting a medical evacuation for a crewmember with symptoms resembling a mild stroke. The vessel diverted to Cape Town port and the MRCC co-coordinated the evacuation with the Metro Rescue services and the ships agent to transfer the crewmember to hospital at 18h37 on Friday evening.
The second medical evacuation was on Sunday 6 December when the MRCC Cape Town was contacted at 6am by a ship, the Stolt Sapphire, which was 170 nautical miles east of Richards By. The crewmember was unconscious in what the master suspected was a diabetic coma. An Oryx helicopter was dispatched from Durban and arrived at the scene at 14h22 however the crewmember was confirmed dead at 14h30.
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