As the countdown to summer continues, it was a busy weekend for Central Coast lifesavers, headlined by a successful resuscitation at Ocean Beach, once again highlighting the value of volunteers patrolling the coastline.
A little after 8am on Sunday, November 13, the Surf Life Saving NSW State Operations Centre was made aware of a CPR in progress at Ocean Beach SLSC for a 65-year-old club member who had collapsed on the shoreline.
The man had been preparing to swim with the club’s Silver Salties group.
Lifesavers performed 15 rounds of CPR and the defibrillator shocked the patient twice.
The patient was then transported to Gosford Hospital conscious, breathing and talking.
“He sent us a text last night thanking us which was very nice; it’s a great sign and was a great success,” Duty Officer Paul Sharpe said.
“The big thing is, even the paramedics were so surprised how professional everything was.
“They commended our lifesavers.
“It just proves that early CPR and defibrillation saves lives.
“It’s one of the best things I’ve seen for a long time; there were so many members involved.”
Sharpe said there was a lot of raw emotion following the incident, which mirrored a very similar one with a different result almost two years to the hour before.
“For a lot of the club members, it was two years to the day that they’d done another CPR and lost a member of the club, so it was great to see a good result,” he said.
“A lot of credit goes to Ocean Beach, how they train members; everyone was calm, no one was flustered, it was a well-oiled machine.”
The incident followed a rescue at nearby Avoca Beach the evening before, when four males were pulled from a rip by an Inflatable Rescue Boat (IRB) just after 6pm.
In what was originally reported as three people in distress, the Avoca Beach SLSC call out team was engaged, and the four men were eventually returned to shore with no additional medical attention required.
In all, 53 rescues were conducted across the weekend statewide by volunteers, 65 first aids administered and 15 ambulances called with 11 emergency incidents recorded for the week commencing November 7.
Source:
Media release, Nov 14
Surf Life Saving NSW