Safety Alert: fatality of a crew member and the collapse of two other crew due to heat exhaustion

 

 

On 27 July 2023, a bulk carrier was berthing at the port of Mesaieed, Qatar. Whilst the first mooring lines were being passed ashore, the bosun and two other crew members of the forward mooring station collapsed, one after another.

They were brought to the accommodation, where they were tended to by other crew members. After the vessel was moored, the chief officer reported that he, too, was feeling unwell. All four crew members were transferred to a local hospital. The bosun was declared deceased by paramedics, and this was confirmed at the hospital.
All four crew members were diagnosed to have suffered from heat exhaustion with the bosun suffering from a heat stroke that led to his death. The investigation concluded it was highly likely that long hours of physical work on deck, in hot and humid weather conditions, had contributed to the crew members’ collapse.

Hospital reports did not indicate that the crew members suffered from any medical conditions, other than those related to heat. The investigation neither considered the bosun’s health nor that of any of the other crew members, as a contributory factor to this occurrence.

Image: Malta Marine Safety Investigation Unit

The Malta Marine Safety Investigation Unit notes that:

“On-site treatment of heat stroke is crucial and should include, (most importantly) rapid, effective, and continuous cooling, rapid rehydration, and effective control of restlessness and convulsions. For cooling, the casualty of a heat stroke should be moved to a cooler place, have their clothing removed, and external cooling methods should be applied, such as: cold packs on the neck, armpit and groin; continuous fanning; and spraying of the skin with water of temperature between 25 ℃ to 30 ℃.”
and that
“it appeared that the crew members were not aware of all actions that needed to be taken, in the event of a heat stroke casualty, particularly the requirement to cool the casualty’s body with water and ice … circumstances at that time did not allow the crew members to refer to the available medical publications on board…”
Recommendation: members are advised to review their arrangements for prevention of exposure to hazardous temperatures and identify if further action is required including but not limited to protection and emergency response training.

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ICHCA International is committed to helping industry to learn lessons fast, learn them once and make sure that they stay learnt. This information is intended to provide all organisations in the cargo supply chain with the opportunity to consider the events and to review and adapt their own health and safety control measures to proactively prevent future incidents.

We are grateful to the Malta Marine Safety Investigation Unit for providing details and for raising awareness. We acknowledge their commitment to sharing learning to benefit others. If you have similar operations, please share this information with managers, operatives and any potentially affected third parties as appropriate. Please also review any of your relevant operations for similar hazardous conditions, risks, and controls. Learning content like this is highly valuable as it is based on real-world experience. We encourage everyone with publishable information about incidents to send it to us, so that we can raise awareness across the whole industry. Please contact us at secretariat@ichca.com sharing your insight could save a life or prevent injury.

For previous Safety Alerts follow the link: https://ichca.com/safety-alerts