A 73-year-old American man was transferred to Mossel Bay in the southern Cape on Friday night after suffering a suspected stroke while at sea aboard the cruise liner Seven Seas Explora.
Andre Fraser, National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) commander at Mossel Bay, said his crew had been alerted at 8pm on Friday about the man’s condition by the Western Cape emergency medical service.
“We began preparations to launch sea rescue craft and By Grace ambulance services dispatched paramedics to join in the operation.
“Earlier MRCC (Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre) had been alerted and an EMS duty doctor contacted the ship in communications assisted by Telkom Maritime Radio Services and the ship was at that stage approximately 2 hours from Mossel Bay, last port of call Cape Town and next port of call Port Elizabeth,” Fraser said.
He said two sea rescue craft were dispatched to the area, accompanied by paramedics from By Grace ambulance services. “On arrival on the scene, 5.5 nautical miles east of Mossel Bay, in 30 to 40 knot north-easterly winds and a 3 to 4 metre sea swell, a paramedic and two NSRI rescue swimmers were transferred onto the ship.
“The patient, in a serious but stable condition, was secured onto a stretcher and transferred onto sea rescue craft and brought to shore in the care of the paramedics and he has been transported to hospital accompanied by his wife,” Fraser added.
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