PHUKET: An Indonesian male tourist died on board a cruise ship that had just arrived in this southern Thai island resort province from Singapore in the small hours on Saturday.
Pol Lt Col Teerasak Boonsawaeng, a Patong police investigator, said he was alerted at about 9am on Saturday by a tour coordinator that a tourist had died on board Spectrum of the Seas, a cruise ship moored in the Patong bay.
Police and a doctor from Patong Hospital went to the boat to investigate.
Dr Natcha Tanpongcharoen from Patong Hospital examined the body of the man, identified as Muhammad Isnaen, 45, in the ship's medical room. It was initially believed the man died from acute heart failure.
The man's wife, Tengu Tuty Evayani, told police she and her husband were sleeping in Room No 7616 of the cruise ship, which arrived in Phuket from Singapore at about 1am on Saturday.
When she woke up shortly after 2am, she found Muhammad lying still, face down on the bed. She called the ship's doctor, who moved her husband to the medical room and performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on him, but to no avail. He was pronounced dead at 2.27am.
The body of the Indonesian tourist was transferred from the ship to Patong Hospital to officially establish the cause of death.
The police had reported the death to the Indonesian embassy in Thailand.
