Indian Navy rescues a Malaysian national 

Mumbai: In a notable humanitarian assistance operation, the Indian Navy, on Thursday, executed medical evacuation and rescued a Malaysian citizen who was facing breathing difficulty. The operation was carried out by Navy's SeaKing helicopter.

"HQ Western Naval Command received info of medical emergency onboard Singapore merchant vessel MV Eagle Tampa, off Mumbai coast. A Malaysian citizen, suffering from gastroesophageal reflux disease, was experiencing breathing difficulty," Defence PRO Mumbai said in a tweet.

According to the report, the Indian Naval SeaKing helicopter from INS Shikra was sent for evacuation, following confirmation of two failed attempts to transfer the patient to tug. The helicopter picked up the patient from the ship and returned to INS Shikra. The patient was then transferred to the hospital by a private ambulance.

Navy's Contribution Towards HADR Operations

Besides guarding the borders of the country, India's armed forces have also been at the forefront of providing Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) to neighbouring countries.

Besides a number of operations undertaken within the country, the Indian Navy, in the year gone by, also extended assistance to Madagascar for ‘Operation Vanilla’, Government of Mauritius in the backdrop of the environmental hazard caused due to grounding of MV Wakashio, assistance to Panama flagged Crude Oil Tanker New Diamond off the East coast of Sri Lanka, to name a few.

On August 5, 2020, Sea King helicopter from Naval Air Station Garuda, Kochi airlifted injured Master of MV Vishwa Prerna from anchorage area off Kochi and transferred him to a civil hospital for medical assistance. In yet another operation, four fishermen were rescued from a sinking boat near Manali Tivu Island in Tamil Nadu in July last year.