Leaders in Safety Award winners 2024
Announcing our Leaders in Safety Award winners for 2024:
Aleksandrs Berezins, Alexander Gordon and Christopher McCarthy
We are pleased to announce that the 2024 Leaders in Safety (LiS) Award will go to three worthy winners, Aleksandrs Berezins, Alexander Gordon and Christopher McCarthy. We received many nominations from our Deepsea and Offshore fleets, but the joint actions of these three colleagues make them our unanimous choice as winners.
Crew members on VOS Tracker, Cook Aleksandrs, AB/Advanced Medical Aider Alexander and Third Engineer Christopher responded immediately to an emergency medical situation on board, working together to save the life of one of their colleagues.
On 9 May, as VOS Tracker was preparing to enter the Port of Aberdeen, Christopher was walking past one of the cabins when he noticed a colleague kneeling on the floor, gasping for air. When asking if the colleague was OK, he received no response and immediately called for assistance. After determining that the colleague was unresponsive and not breathing, he started CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) at once. Aleksandrs joined him, taking over CPR while Christopher retrieved the AED (automated external defibrillator), returning to the cabin with AMA Alexander. The defibrillator was used, and oxygen was administered, as the colleague began to come round. In consultation with a doctor ashore, the AED was left in place, with 100% oxygen continuing to be administered. With his condition stabilised and the vessel arriving in Port, the team member was quickly transferred to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, where it was confirmed that he had suffered a major heart attack.
Although this was a joint team effort from all crew members, it was undoubtedly the swift and decisive actions of these three crew members that ensured their colleague was revived and kept alive and safe until the medical professionals were able to take over. He received the best medical care in Aberdeen and returned home to recover with his family. He hopes to regain full fitness and return to the VOS fleet in the near future.
Many congratulations to Aleksandrs, Alexander and Christopher! We look forward to presenting you with the Leaders in Safety commemorative plates in the near future.
In June, we welcomed the VOS Tracker team at the Aberdeen office to thank them personally for their lifesaving actions.
About Vroon’s “Leaders in Safety Programme”
Every accident is one too many. At Vroon we truly believe that if we work together, it is possible to create an incident-free working environment, where we all return home safe and healthy after duty, to the ones we care for most.
We strive to make our vessels and workplaces safe places to be. This, in an industry that is inherently dangerous and where we are surrounded by hazards on a day-to-day basis. After any incident, we investigate what happened and what we should do to prevent a future reoccurrence.
We believe that by learning collectively we can prevent all significant incidents. In order to continue our journey towards a safer working place, we must apply safe ways of working and actively target behaviour. Our work in this area is never finished, as we must constantly improve our safety performance. As our environment changes, we need to adapt and change our awareness. We motivate each and every person to contribute towards the growth of a culture where working safely is a constant; working unsafely is simply unacceptable!
At Vroon, we believe in this long-term cultural change process, and we expect all colleagues, management and employees alike, to fully support this process. Our LiS programme has been successfully running since 2013. Through active participation and improved safety awareness, we are seeing that incidents can be prevented. The QHSE statistics confirm that our LiS programme really does bring results, with a significant reduction in incidents over recent years.
