Justin Erasmus, NSRI Port Elizabeth deputy station commander, said; “At 08h30 on Saturday 20 April, NSRI Port Elizabeth volunteer sea rescue duty crew were activated by the Transnet National Ports Authority to rendezvous with the bulk carrier PATRIOT SW, sailing from Cameroon to Singapore, last Port of call Cape Town, reporting a Burmese crewman onboard to be unconscious and running a fever.
“Accompanied by a Gaurdmed paramedic our sea rescue craft SPIRIT OF TOFT rendezvoused with the ship in the shipping lanes and the patient was found to be in a critical condition suspected at first to be suffering from Yellow Fever.
“The patient, a 43 year old male from Myanmar, Burma, was transferred onto our sea rescue craft and brought to Port in Port Elizabeth and he has been transported to hospital by Gaurdmed ambulance where he is being treated for Malaria (not Yellow Fever as at first suspected) and he remains in a critical condition.”
“At 12h00 on Saturday 20 April, our NSRI Port Elizabeth volunteer sea rescue duty crew launched SPIRIT OF TOFT to rendezvous with the Far East fishing trawler STD No. 1 reporting a 32 year old Vietnamese crewman onboard suffering a fractured arm.
“We rendezvoused with the trawler 4.5 nautical miles off-shore of the Port Elizabeth Port’s breakwater and found the patient to have a crushed finger of the right hand (and not a fractured arm), the injury caused by unknown circumstances.
“The patient was walking wounded, in a stable and satisfactory condition, and he was taken aboard our sea rescue craft and brought to Port in Port Elizabeth where the ships agent met us and then transported the patient to hospital for further treatment.
“The patient is in a stable and satisfactory condition.”
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