Burmese sailor transferred to Singaporean burns unit

Thursday, 15 July 2010 21:39 Salai Tun

New Delhi (Mizzima) - One of two Burmese merchant seamen airlifted to a Malaysian hospital after sustaining severe burns in a shipboard explosion was transferred to Singapore on Tuesday for specialist care.

Meanwhile, Malaysian maritime authorities have called off their search for a fellow Burmese crewman missing since the blast, according to a Lloyd’s List report.

Tun Tun Win, 39, and Wunna Tun, 30, were seriously injured in the blaze aboard the Panamanian-flagged 8,700-tonne tanker, Eastern Honesty, which was sailing from Vietnam to Kuantan port in Pahang State, Malaysia. They were stabilised on-board and flown in a Malaysian coast guard “medevac” helicopter to Tengku Ampuan Afzan Hospital in Kuantan.

Burmese cadet crewman Wai Phyo San, 22, thrown overboard in the explosion, was still missing on Wednesday night when the search for him by Malaysian Maritime Search and Rescue agencies was called off at about 7:30 p.m., a casualty report on the Lloyd’s List Intelligence website said yesterday.

After a day of treatment Tun Tun Win’s condition failed to improve, so he was transferred at 4 p.m. on Tuesday to Singapore General Hospital for intensive care. The Singaporean hospital has one of Southeast Asia’s few specialist burns centres.

“The hospital in Malaysia lacks the expertise to treat burn victims and Tun Tun Win’s condition was deteriorating so he was transferred from Malaysia to Singapore General Hospital,” Captain Amit Jain, a director of the freighter Eastern Honesty’s Singapore-based technical management company, Unix Line, told Mizzima.

“We are also monitoring the condition of the other sailor [Wunna Tun]. If his condition deteriorates, he will also be transferred,” Jain said.

The injured sailors sustained burns to 50 per cent of their bodies, including their legs and arms, Aadah Yaakob, a nurse at Tengku Ampuan Afzan Hospital, said.

The Royal Malaysian Navy, coast guard and air force conducted the search for the missing Burmese sailor Wai Phyo San, according to Jain yesterday.

“We will discuss with Malaysian officials how to help to the family of the missing sailor,” Captain Jain said. “We will offer a helping hand to them and they will be compensated by our company.”

Nineteen Burmese merchant seamen remain aboard the Eastern Honesty chemical tanker, which sails throughout Southeast Asia.

Vesseltracker.com reported that the ship was underway from Vietnam to Kuantan under cargo when the explosion happened at 10:30 a.m. on Monday, about 76 miles (122 kilometres) northeast of Kuantan. Ten minutes later the captain alerted the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency, the nation’s coast guard, which sent its vessels, the Sipadan and Nusea and the corvette, Perdana to aid firefighting and help in the search for the missing crewman.

The ship sustained minor structural damage and was cleared to sail to Singapore under its own power for repairs, Lloyd’s List said.

On Thursday, it was anchored off Singapore, according to the Marine Traffic website.