HMAS Melbourne aids critically-ill merchant mariner

HMAS Melbourne, deployed to Operation MANITOU in the Middle East Region, has come to the aid of a critically-ill merchant seaman in the southern Arabian Sea.

Melbourne responded to a Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) call from the Merchant Vessel (MV) City of Beijing, which requested life-saving aid.

The Royal Australian Navy frigate rendezvoused with the City of Beijing at first light on Sunday, 20 September, and dispatched her Medical Officer and several of her ship’s company by boat to embark the merchant ship and assess the patient.

Melbourne’s Medical Officer Lieutenant Tenille Chapman, RAN, said she attended to a mariner who was in need of urgent medical assistance.

“His condition was very serious, so I administered emergency treatment,” Lieutenant Chapman said.

Having stabilised the patient, Lieutenant Chapman said the next step was to get the patient to a land-based hospital as quickly as possible.

City of Beijing is now heading to Mumbai at best speed so the mariner can receive further medical attention, while Melbourne has returned to maritime security patrols with the multi-national Combined Maritime Forces (CMF).

Melbourne is on her eighth deployment to the Middle East Region and is the 61st rotation of a Royal Australian Navy vessel in the region since the first Gulf War in 1991.

Royal Australian Navy ships are assigned to CMF for maritime security operations under Operation MANITOU, the Australian name for the ADF’s operational contribution.

Imagery is available at: http://images.defence.gov.au/S20152630