The Department of Marine and Coastal Resources (DMCR), which operates the Phuket Marine Biological Center (PMBC), announced the news on its Facebook page at 10:10pm last night (Aug 22).
Yamil was taken to Vachira Phuket Hospital at 5pm yesterday for an operation to remove sea grass from his stomach, the DMCR reported.
Although sea grass is the staple diet for dugongs, the team of PMBC officers along with doctors from Vachira Phuket Hospital and veterinarians from Veterinary Medical Aquatic Animal Research Center (VMARC) of Chulalongkorn University reported earlier yesterday that Yamil was suffering bloating of the stomach and suffering internal stomach pains.
“The food inside the intestine cannot move, and this produces gas which makes the intestine wall thinner, leading to the rupture of blood capillaries and infection,” the team reported.
“The gas also affects the lungs and makes it difficult to breathe,” the team noted. (See story here.)
At 8:30pm last night, the team had the results of a CT scan that showed that Yamil had inflammation of the lungs and sea grass in his stomach.
Officers spent one and a half hours operating on Yamil. The team used an endoscopic camera and a tube to spray water to soften the sea grass, of which about 30% was removed.
The team planned to remove the rest of the sea grass today.
Yamil was taken back to the PMBC at Cape Panwa. His pulse had slowed, and officers were keeping him under close surveillance.
Yamil went into shock and his heart shopped beating, the PMBC team reported.
Despite attempts by the team of PMBC officers and doctors to revive him, Yamil was pronounced dead at 9:43pm.