Passenger suffers stroke on cruise ship from Penang to Singapore, evacuated to Port Dickson hospital

SINGAPORE: A 66-year-old female passenger who suffered a stroke on board a cruise ship from Penang to Singapore was evacuated by the Malaysia Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) on Wednesday evening (April 26).

An MMEA official told CNA on Thursday that it dispatched a fast craft that was already on patrol with six crew members to the cruise ship – Spectrum of the Seas – 3.8 nautical miles southwest of Port Dickson.

The passenger, who is an Indonesian national, was evacuated by the fast craft to a jetty in Port Dickson, said Maritime Lieutenant Mohd Hafiz Ahmad. The passenger arrived at the jetty at around 10pm and was taken to Port Dickson Hospital.

Lt Hafiz, the operations officer at MMEA Melaka and Negeri Sembilan, said he does not have information about the passenger’s current condition. CNA has contacted Royal Caribbean, which operates the cruise involved, for comment.

The cruise ship had transmitted a call for help with details of the medical emergency to the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) in Putrajaya. The MRCC then relayed this request to the Maritime Rescue Sub Centre (MRSC) in Johor Bahru.

Lt Hafiz said his office received a request from MRSC Johor Bahru at about 5pm on Wednesday to evacuate a passenger from a cruise ship.

“We only managed to conduct the operation later at night because the passenger was supposed to be evacuated to Port Dickson, but the cruise had actually gone past Port Dickson and was near Melaka. So, it had to backtrack,” he said.

“Our boat is small, so we cannot transport the patient over long distances.”