PLETTENBERG BAY NEWS - Four people, including a seriously ill woman who had lost consciousness, were rescued within an hour of each other in three separate rescue operations on Robberg Nature Reserve on Monday.
First rescue
NSRI Plettenberg Bay station commander Jaco Kruger said in the first incident a 45-year-old woman from Douglasdale in Gauteng was taken to hospital where she remains in a serious but stable condition.
Kruger said at 13:08 on Monday 28 April, NSRI Plettenberg Bay duty crew were activated following reports of a woman who had collapsed and was unconscious on Wildside track in Robberg Nature Reserve, near the Fountain Shack, which is on the Eastside.
"Good Samaritan hikers, including a doctor, were assisting the lady at the scene and requested urgent medical assistance, reporting her medical condition to be deteriorating from unknown causes," Kruger said.
CapeNature rangers headed towards the casualty while NSRI Plettenberg Bay launched an NSRI rescue craft to respond to the emergency.
When they arrived at the scene, the woman was in a critical condition. She was secured onto a stretcher and hiked to the NSRI rescue craft while medical care continued.
Additional NSRI rescue craft were launched to dispatch more NSRI rescue crew to the scene to assist.
Kruger said hikers assisted NSRI rescue crew to get the woman onto the NSRI rescue craft. "They are commended for the help they rendered," said Kruger.
Accompanied by her partner, the patient was brought to the NSRI Plettenberg Bay station 14 rescue base and transported to hospital by ER24 ambulance in the care of ER24 paramedics.
The reason for ther collapse still remains unknown and doctors and nurses are continuing with life-saving efforts in hospital.
A second rescue...
While the NSRI were still busy with the emergency evacuation. NSRI Plettenberg Bay and CapeNature rangers were alerted to a woman injured nearby, at the Gap. CapeNature Rangers took the injured patient from the Gap into their care and hiked her safely to the Robberg car park without incident. The woman's condition was stable and further medical care was applied privately.
...and a third
As the NSRI rescue craft was departing the Wildside, where the first female patient had been secured onto the NSRI rescue craft, they were approached by a couple from the Middle East reporting that they were suffering dehydration and also in need of medical care.
The NSRI supplied them with additional hydration supplies and left them there in the care of the rescue crew while the NSRI rescue craft delivered the first casualty to the paramedics who were waiting at the NSRI rescue base.
The rescue craft then returned to the Wildside for its third rescue, picked up the Middle Eastern couple and took them to the NSRI rescue station.
By that stage, both of them were "hydrated and in good spirits", according to Kruger, and needed no further assistance.
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