Mumbai, Oct 14 (IANS): A Chinese crewman, who had suffered a stroke and hemiplegia, was evacuated by the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) from a ship in the Arabian Sea, around 40 km off the shores of Mumbai, an official said here on Saturday.

Late Friday night, the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) here received a distress call from the Panama-flagged vessel, MT Hua Wei 8, of a 49-year-old-crew member who was critically ill.

The ship was en route from the New Mangalore Port to Muhammad Bin Qasim Port, near Karachi in Pakistan, and owing to the medical emergency, the vessel altered its course towards Mumbai for medical help to the crewman.

Earlier on Saturday, the ship’s captain and local agents requested the ICG's help to evacuate the patient as no tug was available.

Given the serious condition of the patient, the ICG deployed one of its ships in the vicinity, C-439 at 7 a.m. in the morning, and despite very low visibility conditions in the sea, managed to help the patient from the ship and brought him to Mumbai around 90 minutes later.

The patient was handed over to the ship’s local agents for further medical management and other formalities as the ICG once again responded promptly to a maritime distress call in the high seas, said the official.