20 Causes of Chest Pain

Aha you might say. There’s 20 causes of chest pain? 20? Really?The idea for this blog came from a doctor colleague who casually mentioned that there are 20 or more causes of chest pain.So there the challenge began… could we find the 20 (or more) causes of chest pain and share them with our followers! We think we’ve done pretty well with the full 20, plus a bonus one! But what do you think, have you got any that we’ve missed?Just check out our quick guide below - taking in a whirlwind tour of the most common causes of chest pain that our team have treated. Remember that chest pain is ALWAYS taken seriously by the medics and we should treat for the worst case scenario until proven otherwise.For the majority of these conditions, you would expect to see an elevated heart rate and respiratory rate as well as the symptoms described.List of services1. Heart AttackA heart attack is a pumping problem. It’s what happens when there is a blockage in one of the arteries that takes blood to the heart muscle. Cells around the blockage start to die off, which affects how the electrical signals pass through the heart, and consequently how well it can pump. It can lead to cardiac arrest, when the heart stops pumping normally, if it’s left untreated.In most cases, someone having a heart attack will complain of chest pain - often described as heavy or crushing, or like someone/something sitting on their chest. This pain can radiate up into the neck, the jaw and back, and down the arm/s. Associated symptoms include dizziness, shortness of breath, nausea, vomiting, sweating and a feeling of ‘impending doom’. Alway seek medical help if you think someone is having a heart attack.Item linkList Item 12. AnginaAngina is chest pain that’s caused by a reduced flow of blood to the heart muscle. On its own, it’s not normally life threatening, but it is a warning sign that you could be at risk of a heart attack or a stroke.Angina pain tends to be described at tight, dull or heavy, and as for heart attacks, it may radiate. People can experience shortness of breath and nausea too. It’s normally triggered by exertion or stress (known as stable angina), but should resolve with a few minutes rest. If rest doesn’t resolve it, then the angina may be unstable and needs a review by a Doctor.Once diagnosed, treatment may include lifestyle changes and GTN spray or tablets to reduce the risk of more serious problems.The GTN is administered under the tongue but be aware that due to its action of relaxing and dilating the blood vessels, it can cause the blood pressure to drop - resulting in a dizzy patient with the risk of fainting..Item linkList Item 23. Blunt traumaBlunt trauma is pretty self explanatory and involves a blunt force impacting with the chest. So, as you’d imagine, we would expect injury to skin, but also the underlying structures. Just picture what your chest looks like from the outside and then picture what’s inside and where.If you’re assessing someone’s chest for injuries, remember to include the sides and the back - it’s all classed as ‘chest’!So, imagine a punch to the centre of the chest - it could cause pain, bruising to the skin, damage to the sternum and ribs, disrupt blood vessels and even impact on the lungs, heart and other organs underneath. It could lead to difficulty breathing.Remember that the chest is one of the 4 body cavities that can collect a large quantity of internal bleeding, often with only subtle outward signs initially.Item linkList Item 34. Penetrating traumaAs for blunt trauma, the term ‘penetrating trauma’ is pretty self explanatory and involves something penetrating the chest wall. That could be something as small as a needle, or as big as a telegraph pole! For any penetrating trauma, you would expect to see pain, a wound, injury to the skin, and possibly the bones and underlying organs - the lungs, heart, blood vessels and maybe even the stomach, liver, kidneys, intestines and spleen, depending on the angle of entry.The biggest concern is the penetration into the chest cavity, allowing air into the pleural space and causing even bigger problems - see Pneumothorax/haemothorax and Tension Pneumothorax below.It can also be tricky to work out how deep the injury actually is, especially if you didn’t witness it or don’t know what caused it. In that case, always err on the side of caution and plan for the worst.Item linkList Item 45. Pneumothorax and HaemothoraxGenerally associated with chest trauma (blunt or penetrating) both pneumothorax and haemothorax are potentially life threatening.Pneumothorax is what happens when air enters the chest cavity. It can be open, with an external (sucking) wound, or internal. In both cases there is the risk of a partial or full lung collapse due to the change in pressure. For an open pneumothorax, we can use a chest seal to help stabilise the injury and try to reinflate the lung a little, administer oxygen and pain relief and monitor while a medevac is organised. For a closed pneumothorax, there’s little we can do other than oxygen, pain relief and monitoring before medevac.A haemothorax is what happens when the injury causes the chest cavity to fill with blood. This affects the lungs' ability to work, can cause a collapsed lung and also means we have a shock situation, where the circulating volume of blood isn’t where it’s supposed to be! Treatment would be oxygen, pain relief and monitoring before an urgent medevac.Signs and symptoms for all of these conditions would be pain, evidence of an injury (think about your mechanism of injury), reduced chest rise and fall and/or reduced breath sounds on the affected side, hyperresonance for pneumothorax and hyporesonance for haemothorax. Difficulty breathing, low oxygen saturations, increased work of breathing.Oh, and just to scare everyone, pneumothorax can actually happen spontaneously with no apparent cause - especially in tall young men! Winner!Item Link6. Tension pneumothoraxA tension pneumothorax happens when a pneumothorax either isn’t identified and treated, or if it worsens.Put simply, the air trapped inside the chest cavity isn’t able to escape and it results in what’s called mediastinal shift (shifting from the middle). So we have a collapsed lung on one side, which causes pressure to build up on the heart, the other lung, the trachea and other structures. This pressure can actually cause a shift, squashing all the organs towards the uninjured side of the chest where they can’t work properly.Symptoms are as for pneumothorax, plus you may be able to see the trachea sited to one side of central.Item Link7. Aortic dissectionThe aorta is the hoooge artery that exits from the heart. It copes with blood pumping under the most pressure, so is extremely strong. It runs from the heart, down the body to the pelvis where it splits into the two femoral arteries.Sometimes the wall of the aorta weakens, causing an aneurysm which is like a bulge on the artery. If this ruptures it can cause sudden and extreme blood loss internally.In the case of aortic dissection, a weakened section of the aorta tears or splits, causing blood to leak between the layers that make up the aorta wall. It can happen suddenly or over time. Classic symptoms are a sudden, severe pain in the chest, or back, between the shoulder blades. Often described as tearing or ripping in nature. The pain can radiate, and be accompanied with feeling cold, clammy, faint and short of breath.A difference of 20mmHg when measuring the systolic blood pressure - with the left arm being higher than the right can suggest a dissected aorta but can’t be relied on to diagnose it.Item Link8. Pulmonary embolismA pulmonary embolism or PE is a blood clot in the lungs that blocks the blood flow to part of the lung tissues.These blood clots most often start as a deep vein thrombosis (DVT) in the legs but can be caused by other conditions too. The clot travels through the bigger blood vessels until it gets to the lungs where the blood vessels narrow and they get stuck.Typical symptoms would be sudden shortness of breath, sharp chest pain - sometimes described as pinpoint pain, feeling faint and coughing. Symptoms can be accompanied by signs of a DVT which are calf pain, localised redness, swelling and heat in the calf.Treatment in hospital is needed so keep the casualty calm and monitor their condition while you wait for a medevac. You can give Oxygen if the saturations can’t be maintained at the right levels by breathing air.Item Link9. CostochondritisNo, it’s actually not a beautiful Mediterranean holiday location, it’s actually a very painful condition!Costochondritis is inflammation of the joints where your ribs join the sternum in the middle of your chest. It causes a very sharp chest pain, especially when you’re breathing or moving around and it’s normally worse when you press on it.It can be caused by infection, repetitive movement, a chest injury, coughing or as a result of certain conditions. Normally it will resolve on its own with rest, but may need pain relief to help the casualty stay comfortable.Item Link10. MyocarditisMyocarditis is an inflammation of the heart muscle, the myocardium. If severe, the inflammation can reduce the heart's ability to pump blood. Typical symptoms would be chest pain, shortness of breath, and rapid or irregular heart rhythms (arrhythmias).Myocarditis can be caused by a viral infection, a general inflammatory condition or sometimes a reaction to a drug.Treatment is normally via medication, or in severe cases, surgery may be required.Item Link11. PericarditisThe pericardium is the protective sac surrounding your heart and pericarditis is what happens when it becomes inflamed. On its own, pericarditis isn’t normally serious, but it can happen alongside myocarditis, when it becomes a bit more worrying.Symptoms include a sharp chest pain, often to the left side which may be relieved a little when the casualty leanins forward. It can be worse on lying down and you might feel generally unwell too.Pericarditis is generally treated with painkillers and anti inflammatories, though very occasionally requires surgery.Item Link12. PleurisyWe have two pleural layers around our lungs, one inside the other with a fluid filled space in between. The fluid lubricates the layers and helps them to glide past each other as your lungs expand and contract during breathing.Pleurisy is an inflammation of this space and causes the tissues to swell and become inflamed. This means that the two layers rub against each other like sandpaper. It can be very painful and is worse on deep inspiration. If you’re able to listen with a stethoscope it sounds dry and scratchy.Treatment is through pain management and treating the cause of the inflammation, while monitoring in case it worsens or develops into a more serious condition.Item Link13. Rib fractureRib fractures can be due to blunt or penetrating trauma (see above). In the elderly, especially when they have osteoporosis, fractures can actually occur spontaneously or due to violent coughing or other movement.Rib fracture pain is normally a sharp pain, localised over the injury site, which worsens on taking a deep breath. It can be associated with other injuries too.Unless the rib is displaced (or an open fracture), treatment is normally via pain relief and rest - ribs are no longer strapped up as the idea is to start moving as soon as the pain allows. The pain will be quite intense at first, making daily tasks difficult, but will suddenly improve after a couple of weeks.Item Link14. COPD or Lund diseaseCOPD is an umbrella term used to describe a collection of chronic respiratory diseases such as chronic bronchitis, emphysema, chronic asthma, bronchiectasis, and a number of industrial respiratory conditions.Chest pain can be continual, or at times when the underlying condition ‘flares up’, such as when it’s exacerbated by a chest infection.Infection, inflammation and swelling can obstruct the airways, causing pain and discomfort. Pain can be sharp or dull, and may be in a small or larger area.Treatment immediately would be the casualties own inhalers, plus oxygen if needed. Then, looking at the cause of the flare up may indicate antibiotics, steroids or other treatment.Item Link15. AsthmaA common lung condition that causes occasional breathing difficulties. Asthma affects all age groups and there’s currently no cure, but it is normally well controlled with medication.Most adults with asthma will know they have it, will carry medication to deal with an asthma attack, know what to do when they have an attack and will know the triggers that set it off.Symptoms include a distinctive expiratory wheeze, caused by narrow airways, a tight chest often described as feeling like a band around the chest, coughing and shortness of breath.Treatment would be to remove any trigger or remove the casualty from the trigger. Use the casualty’s own inhalers in the first instance and if there’s no improvement, an ambulance crew might use a nebuliser. Oxygen could be an option if the attack worsens.Item Link16. Pulled muscle, strain or sprainAny number of activities, especially on board a boat, can result in overstretching or spraining the muscles around the chest - including the intercostal muscles between the ribs.Any injury of this nature will cause pain in the area of the injury which may increase on deep inspiration and movement.Providing a fracture is ruled out, treatment would be pain management and monitoring.Item Link17. Chest infection - e.g PneumoniaI’m sure we’ve all had a chest infection at some point in our lives, and let's be honest, it can make you feel very rough.There are thousands of different chest infections doing the rounds every year and some are worse than others. Most will cause you to feel rubbish for a few days, but rest, drinking plenty of fluids and paracetamol based remedies will help to manage the symptoms.If you think the chest infection is a bit worse and it’s causing chest pain, you’re coughing up yellow, brown, green or blood stained sputum, and have difficulty breathing, or if you have any underlying respiratory problems, you may want to seek medical advice.In some cases, a course of antibiotics and steroids may be appropriate to help you to make a full recovery.Item Link18. ShinglesSo you might think this is a long shot to get to our 20 causes of chest pain! But, anyone who has had chickenpox as a child (so that’s most people who grew up in the UK!) is at risk because shingles is a reactivation of the varicella-zoster virus that causes chickenpox.Shingles starts as a tingling or painful sensation on an area of skin - often on the chest. There you go, another cause of chest pain! Though it can be anywhere on the body. You may also have a headache and feel generally unwell. After a few days, a blotchy rash forms on one side of the body. The rash develops to oozing blisters, then scabs over and disappears. It can last up to 4 weeks and be quite painful.Treatment once shingles is diagnosed is paracetamol, keeping the rash clean, wearing loose clothing and using something to cool the rash a couple of times a day.Item Link19. Gastro-Oesophageal Reflux Disease (GORD)Acid reflux (indigestion) happens when stomach acid leaks from the stomach into the oesophagus.GORD is a chronic condition, diagnosed when acid reflux happens more than two times a week, or when it causes inflammation and damage in the oesophagus.The result of the leakage is… chest pain!Other symptoms are bloating, belching, bad breath, oesophagitis, feeling and being sick, pain and/or difficulty swallowing, sore throat, hoarseness, cough.Treatment is via lifestyle changes and medication to manage pain and the condition.Item Link20. Panic attacksAn incredibly common cause of 999 calls for an ambulance!Panic or anxiety attacks come with a host of symptoms including a racing heart, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, chest pain or a tight chest, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, a stitch-like pain… the list goes on.The best treatment is to coach the breathing - use square breathing -breathe in for 4 seconds, hold your breath for 4, breathe out for 4, hold for 4. There are also a number of Apps that can help too. A top tip is to make sure the shoulders are relaxed and dropped down so that the ribs can swing normally.Panic attacks can make someone feel like they're dying - they struggle to breathe, so they breathe faster to compensate, then they feel even more like they can’t breathe… and so a vicious circle starts.Longer term, being able to recognise a panic attack and having a toolbox of tricks that are tried and tested is good advice.Item Link21. And finally… the bonus one!Our Paramedic Rachel told us about a little known cause of chest pain. When she was working as a frontline paramedic, there were regular calls to the local Police custody suite for a variety of reasons.But it seems that being arrested and finding out what you were being charged with often brought on some random bouts of non specific chest pain! Who knew?!Item LinkFound this informative? Then why not share it with someone else you think may enjoy it...Do you find our blogs useful? Would you like to find out more about medicine at sea? Why not sign up for one of our free resources:Annual Updates:We will send you an email once a year identifying all the latest changes in guidance for the provision of First Aid and Medical Care at sea.Salt Water Solutions:This is a monthly learning resource that can be used as part of your crew training or simply to keep yourself up to date with the various first aid and medical skills that you may need to perform whilst on board.Worse Things Happen at Sea!:This is our monthly digest that covers topics that are relevant within the maritime sector.Just click on the images below to sign up.ButtonButtonButton< Older PostNewer Post >Moving an ill or injured patientby Rachel Smith•26 March 2025In basic first aid classes, there is great emphasis on not moving a patient under any circumstances. But is this always right? Our Paramedic friends tell us about times they have arrived on scene to find an elderly faller virtually held down onto the icy ground they slipped on because they think it’s best. Or a care home resident who is unharmed, wriggling around but just unable to get themselves off the floor. Of course, if the person is ill or injured, care must be taken to prevent the condition from worsening, but certainly in our maritime environment there may be times when we MUST move a patient for both their and our safety and wellbeing. We may even need to move them into a safe space (such as lowering from height) before we can assess them and work out the potential injuries and associated risks. But how do you know when to move them? Or how to move them safely? Here are some situations where moving the patient might be essential: Immediate danger – if the patient is in immediate danger, and if it’s safe for you to help, they should be moved away in some manner. This could be due to fire, an unstable structure, in the water, an otherwise unsafe location. Cardiac Arrest – the patient must be on or moved to a hard, flat surface in order for compressions to be effective. Ideally with a bit of space for a team to work around them. To prevent further harm – if the patient is in a position where they could worsen, or something life threatening could develop, you may need to move, or at least reposition them. This could be due to vomiting, choking on blood, unable to maintain their own airway and could be as simple as sitting them up or rolling them over. Self-extricate – if the patient is able to self-extricate, they should do so. There has been a lot of recent research into this area and old techniques challenged and changed. For instance, in a road traffic collision, if the patient can get out of the car themselves, they should. You can find out more here: https://phemcast.co.uk/2022/09/15/extrication/ Worsening conditions – if the weather and environment change, then you may need to move your patient. For illness or injury, keeping someone warm is important, if not vital. Even in a tropical climate, a trauma patient can cool more rapidly than you think and those rain squalls may pass quickly but do a lot of soggy damage in a short time.Stress Happens!by Rachel Smith•26 February 2025At the time of writing, the Caribbean superyacht season is in full swing and the Mediterranean season is looming just around the corner in a few months time. It can be a stressful time for any crew, from the most senior to the most junior - and we could all do with a little help to manage stress and our response to it. We’ve written a number of blogs about mental health and things you can do to help manage your own stress and mental health, and when to seek help. We’ve listed them at the end of this blog. But did you know that we can also offer a one day, onboard training session, for the whole crew? Stress Happens! is run in conjunction with the super experienced team at Impact Crew, so you benefit from a business, leadership and team perspective, together with the medical and wellness input. Stress Happens! was developed in response to feedback from superyacht crews and has been running for 4 years. It can be delivered in one day and is suitable for crew at any level. It’s also delivered onboard, making it easy to facilitate the whole crew to attend. The aim is to focus on mental wellbeing and stress, providing tools and techniques to help you to manage your own stress, helping others to manage their stress and knowing where to turn for help if it’s needed.Chest painby Rachel Smith•12 February 2025In this month's blog, as aching hearts aren’t just related to Valentines Day, we’re taking a look at chest pain! Chest pain is a common reason for calls for an ambulance or to shoreside, and frequently it’s not actually due to cardiac (heart) issues. But you will often hear Paramedics tell their patients that they have done the right thing; they would genuinely prefer to get to a patient and find the chest pain is a minor issue, than it being cardiac, and too late! Last year, we wrote this blog about 20 causes of chest pain (plus a bonus one!). Some of the conditions described are acute (sudden onset), some are chronic (long term), some need urgent attention, others not so much. But we should always take chest pain seriously and make sure a full assessment is done at the earliest opportunity to rule out anything life threatening. Typical symptoms of cardiac chest pain and/or a heart attack are:FleetMed Support - Launchby Rachel Smith•29 January 2025Get ready for something super exciting! After a full year of intense planning and meticulous preparation, we're thrilled to announce the launch of our all-encompassing medical support service — FleetMed Support! Customised Maritime Medical Solutions Whether you have a fleet of ships or a single vessel, managing medical operations can be daunting without dedicated support. This makes FleetMed Support a perfect solution for the cruise, expedition and superyacht sectors. Our approach is simple: We take the burden of medical management off your shoulders, allowing you to focus on the bigger picture. With 24/7 support, we create a customized service level agreement for your fleet, ensuring that every detail is taken care of. So what’s new and why haven’t we done this before? Well, we're not a company that rushes into things. Instead, we take the time to thoroughly research and understand what's needed, ensuring we can deliver to the very high standards we set for ourselves and maintain those standards at all costs. Let's be honest, it's the continuous pursuit of excellence, the commitment to always improve, and the understanding that there's always more to learn that drives us forward each day. This means we are now ready to launch what we believe is a truly great portfolio of customisable services. So, how could this look for your company? Working with us is straightforward and hassle-free. We start by listening carefully to your specific requirements so that we can thoroughly understand your needs, and discuss your current gaps. Once we have a clear picture, we craft a tailored plan to deliver the precise services you require. Our process is marked by clear and concise communication at every step. We believe in total transparency, ensuring that you are kept in the loop throughout the entire process. We pride ourselves on our efficiency and dedication. Once the plan is in place, our experienced team gets to work, executing the agreed-upon services with precision and care. Our goal is to deliver exceptional results without any drama, making your experience as smooth and stress-free as possible.Vaccinations - A useful overview for seafarersby Rachel Smith•15 January 2025From Flu jabs to far flung destinations… Vaccinations are a hotly debated topic across the globe, particularly after COVID-19 and the rapid response to the need for a vaccination to help reduce the burden on the health services in different countries. While the majority of healthcare workers and the general population support the ‘prevention is better than cure’ line of thinking, and therefore vaccinations, there are others who are determinedly against vaccinations for any disease, whatever the risk of mortality and death may be. In the UK, the BCG (Bacillus Calmette-Guerin) vaccination used to be given to all children in their teenage years to protect against tuberculosis. The vaccine has been so successful that TB is virtually eradicated now, and the majority of cases are due to migration. Now it’s only given to those deemed at high risk - babies and children at high risk, those travelling to high risk regions and adults coming into the UK from high risk countries. Depending on your country of origin, you should receive a range of vaccinations as a child or young adult. This will most likely include diphtheria, tetanus, polio and whooping cough, hepatitis and HIB (Influenza type B). Then MMR (measles, mumps and rubella), the pneumococcal vaccine (meningitis, pneumonia and sepsis) and HPV (Human Papilloma Virus) with a variety of boosters along the way. At the other end of the scale, the over 65s can receive vaccines for shingles, pneumococcal vaccine and respiratory syncytial virus along with flu and covid vaccines.Red Square Medical – End of Year Reviewby Rachel Smith•30 December 2024Reflection is an essential part of medicine and our regular followers will know that every year, we like to take a look back and assess where we started and how far we’ve come over the last 12 months. So, please join us on our whirlwind recap of 2024 as we get ready for a fabulous 2025… In 2024 we increased the number of STCW training clients to 4 organisations in 6 locations. We delivered STCW training at all levels to over 250 students. We delivered bespoke training to over 75 students onboard Superyachts and cruise ships. We delivered first aid at work or oxygen training to over 40 students, on land and on ships.The Recovery Position - an STCW refreshby Rachel Smith•18 December 2024Welcome to our December blog, which is all about the recovery position and how to manage an unconscious casualty who is breathing normally. Unconsciousness is a medical emergency as the person is very vulnerable and may not be able to manage their own airway effectively. We also need to think about the cause of unconsciousness. Is it a simple fainting episode due to illness? Is it a massive hemorrhage causing hypovolemic shock? Or is it due to some kind of external factor or injury? This blog looks at how to manage an unconscious casualty. So, if we have a casualty who is unconscious, but who is breathing normally for themselves, and we’re not suspecting a serious injury, the recovery position is the best position to use while monitoring them. The recovery position keeps their airway open and makes sure that vomit or liquid won’t cause them to choke.Revisiting our guest blogsby Rachel Smith•11 December 2024All the guest blogs! When we started adding blogs to our website back in early 2021, we did a little feature on each of our instructors of the time. They’re quite a fascinating bunch and the series proved quite popular amongst our followers. In addition to our amazing instructors, we work with some utterly incredible human beings all over the world, and the idea of sharing their stories grew and developed into what eventually became a monthly guest blog. It’s been interesting to find out more about how medical care at sea or in remote locations features in their work, and to discover a few fun facts along the way. This month, we thought that it might be a fun idea to give you a chance to go back into the archives and review all the guest blogs over the last few years! Maybe even let us know which your favourite one is?Cayman Maritime Report 2023by Rachel Smith•27 November 2024We’ve taken a look at the 2023 Casualty Summary Report from the Maritime Authority of the Cayman Islands (MACI) to see what kind of incidents and trends their data shows us, even with relatively small data sets, and how this may be able to transfer to our own risk assessments and actual practice. You can find the report here: Cayman Maritime Report 2023 The first thing we noted was the authors note that the data is split out into incidents. This means that one incident may include a number of events. So a collision and any resulting injury is one incident, but is reported as two events, or more, if more than one person is injured. It made us wonder whether this method of reporting by an authority represents how incidents are reported onboard and whether it should be a consideration? Of course, for any set of statistics presented at the moment, we also have to consider the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact this has on trends including that period. While essential shipping continued, the cruise and superyacht sectors reduced activity and staffing, often to a skeleton crew while anchored somewhere. So this will be reflected in the historic data sets that we analyse from 2019 to 2021 and may not accurately reflect increases and decreases during and since then. In some situations, we may need to look further back for accurate data. We also need to consider whether increases in incidents and events is also down to increased reporting - suggesting an improvement in the awareness of reporting requirements and greater engagement from the industry and individual sectors - this can only be a good development. Since 2020, the type of injury has been recorded in 8 different categories, with hand and foot injuries topping the leaderboard, closely followed by head, body, and back injuries. So if you were looking to run drills, or practise medical skills, these would be the key areas to cover. Only one death was an occupational accident, and is being investigated here: MAIB Investigations (search for case #9229607). It relates to a fall down a ventilation shaft on a bulk carrier in a Greek shipyard. The full report was still pending at the time of writing. Merchant ships are heavily regulated by a number of authorities, and the requirements for personal protective equipment and safe systems of work are enforced and applied to reduce accidents and incidents onboard. This has led to a lower reporting of incidents than in the commercial yacht sector. Could there be room for improvement here in this area? We certainly think so. Many of the hand and foot injuries reported can be career ending or life changing, but are preventable. Follow up has shown that there is a link here with injuries being sustained when inappropriate or no PPE was used. The supply and use of appropriate PPE is mandatory on vessels subject to the MLC and it’s worth remembering that some PPE can be produced in styles and designs compatible with the aesthetics of a yacht if required! On a much wider scale, a lack of transparency and standardisation globally can affect the collection of data and the issue of under reporting. While the MACI figures may be accurate, we need other accurate figures to compare them to, in order to build a bigger picture across the world as we have in aviation. From December 2024, the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) will be enforcing an amendment so that seafarer deaths will be recorded and reported annually. The MACI and Cayman Islands Shipping Registry produces a number of safety flyers that are publicly available HERE that may be useful. In summary, analysing data can sometimes result in more questions than answers. But even this can lead to interesting and important developments that result in improved safety and reduced incidents and accidents onboard. Key points to take from this report are: Use the correct PPE for the task. Employ approved systems of work and risk assessments for the task. Reporting is key for safety in the future of our industry. Enjoy a night ashore, but don’t over do the cocktails! As always, if you’d like any input on medical training onboard or ashore, or drills that you can run yourselves, please just get in touch. References: https://www.lloydslist.com/LL1145359/Increase-in-incidents-of-deaths-at-seaJames Griffiths - Guest Blogby Rachel Smith•6 November 2024Welcome to our latest guest blog where we’ve been chatting to James Griffiths, General Manager of Ocean Operations for Scenic Group and finding out more about what happens behind the scenes in order to keep a fleet of luxury expedition ships running. Here’s what James told us… As General Manager of Ocean Operations, I’m responsible for the operations of our fleet which includes four ships in service with around 850 colleagues. I currently live in Mumbles, near Swansea in the UK, but due to the nature of my work I spend a significant amount of time living in Croatia. Prior to this role, I spent many years working at sea and worked up through the ranks to Captain and over the last 15 years, my main focus has been on polar expedition travel. I hold a master mariner certificate of competency in addition to a degree in engineering and a post graduate diploma in law. Part of my job is to work with our medical service provider (Red Square Medical) to ensure that our ships are offering medical services that are appropriate for their deployment, and this can often be to some of the most extreme and remote locations around the world. It’s extremely varied, though during the COVID-19 pandemic, I came ashore when our operations paused for a significant period of time. I was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to lead the restart of our Ocean Operations, which included setting up everything from a company to manage the ships, to selecting our crewing, medical, helicopter and submarine partners and providers, amongst many other things. Our areas of operation, and the nature of our cruises (expedition), plus having aircraft and submersibles onboard some, do mean additional elements involved in the management of these ships. You could say that this current position is more of a happy coincidence than one that I actually planned for! In some ways this is a great positive - I do think it’s possible to plan a little too much and then be disappointed if things don’t go quite the way you had imagined. But there’s no danger of that here!More posts