At 2.00pm on Tuesday, whilst fishing boat QNa 91719 TS from Quang Nam Province was fishing near the Hoang Sa archipelago at latitude 15°20’N and longitude 113°43’E, 53-year-old crewman Huynh Ngoc Chau was taken ill.  He was suffering from a severe pain with fever, chills, abdominal bloating, yellow staining of the skin and vomiting.

After receiving an SOS message from the fishing boat, the Da Nang Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (Da Nang MRCC) immediately sent out its rescue ship SAR 412 to help the sick crew member.

Whilst the ship was en route to the patient, the fishing boat was asked to head towards shore at a speed of between 4 and 5 nautical miles per hour, in strong winds of level 5.

By 12:00pm today, the sick fisherman had been safely brought back to the mainland for treatment.