On Wednesday morning, a sick member of the crew of fishing boat QNg 94695 TS from Quang Ngai Province was safely brought back to Da Nang for treatment.

At 10.00am on Monday, 32-year-old Nguyen Dung was reported to suffer from lower abdominal pain below belly button whilst his vessel was fishing in Viet Nam’s Hoang Sa waters, about 400 nautical miles east off the Da Nang coast.

After receiving an SOS message from the boat’s captain Nguyen Thuong, the Viet Nam Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (Viet Nam MRCC) immediately asked the fishing boat to return to the mainland, and helped the boat’s crew members to contact doctors from the Marine Medicine Institute to ask for first aid instructions.

According to the diagnosis by mainland doctors, the sick fisherman was able to have acute appendicitis.

Besides, the Viet Nam MRCC immediately asked the Da Nang MRCC to send out its rescue ship SAR 412, carrying doctors from the city’s Emergency Centre 115, to help the victim.

At 7.55pm on the same day, SAR 412 reached the fishing boat, and the patient was, then, transferred to the rescue ship for first aid. However, the sick fishermen’s health condition got worse because he couldnot eat or drink.

After receiving initial medical examinations, the victim was quickly brought back to the mainland for further treatment at a local hospital.