Volunteers were thrust into action on three different occasions on Sunday, January 8, the first of which happened at about 13:30.
The Plettenberg Bay NSRI station duty crew was activated after receiving reports of a jet-ski rider needing assistance after experiencing difficulty in the Keurbooms River mouth.
“We launched the sea rescue craft Airlink Rescuer and Ray Farnham to assist the 21-year-old Port Elizabeth man on a jet-ski,” station commander Marc Rodgers said.
The crew towed him back into the estuary without incident and without him needing any further assistance.
Two hours later the duty crew responded to another call for help, this time about a drowning in progress in the Keurbooms River Mouth.
Again the two rescue craft as well as the NSRI rescue vehicle and Western Cape government health emergency services and Med-Life ambulance services were dispatched. They were joined by Bitou Municipal lifeguards on the scene.
The girl was in critical condition and was treated by NSRI rescuers and paramedics. “Both the daughter and the mother were transported to hospital by ambulance for further treatment and for observation for secondary drowning symptoms. The girl was in a serious but stable condition and the mother in a stable condition.”
Just before 19:00 the NSRI responded to another call for assistance after receiving reports of a drowning in progress at Robberg Beach.
Both rescue vessels were launched and the NSRI rescue vehicle dispatched.
“Rupert Baird, a bystander from the United Kingdom, assisted to rescue Robin Woodhead, a 50-year-old man from London, from the surf. Woodhead had reportedly been swept out to sea by rip currents.”
When rescuers and Med-Life ambulance emergency personnel arrived on the scene Woodhead had difficulty breathing. “He was assisted by a bystander doctor, Dr Charles Niehaus, and by Bitou Municipal lifeguards and our NSRI doctor, Dr. Sam Botha, and NSRI medics and paramedics continued with medical treatment.”
Woodhead was stabilised on the beach and transported onto a stretcher and onto a NSRI 4x4 rescue vehicle before being transferred to an ambulance and taken hospital. He was in a serious but stable condition and kept overnight for recovery and observation for secondary drowning.
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