Patient critical following near drowning accident

Darren Zimmerman, NSRI Simons Town station commander, said: 'At 12h55 NSRI Simons Town volunteer rescue crew were activated following reports of a drowning in progress at Windmill Beach, Simons Town.'Our NSRI Simons Town volunteer sea rescue duty crew and WC Government Health EMS responded to the scene where we found a 30 year old male on the beach and a stand-up paddle boarder, that had reportedly rescued the man from the surf, had initiated Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR).'It is believed that the man, who is reportedly from Pretoria, had been face down in the surf for at least 10 minutes before the stand-up paddle boarder had reached him and rescued him from the surf after he apparently, according to eye-witnesses, had gotten into difficulty while swimming.'NSRI medics and WC Government Health EMS paramedics took over CPR efforts and the EMS Skymed helicopter was activated to respond.'An EMS response paramedic, CMR (Cape Medical Response) paramedics and ER24 paramedics also arrived on-scene to assist and the SA Police Services were in attendance'Following approximately 50 minutes of CPR efforts were successful on-scene and the patient, in a critical condition but breathing spontaneously, has been airlifted to hospital by the Skymed helicopter.'The name of the man has not been released by the Police.' Pic: toowist.com