St Francis Bay – Wednesday and Thursday, 01st and 02nd October, 2014. Patient evacuation and in a separate incident a fisherman is declared deceased:At 11h30 on Wednesday the 1st October, NSRI St Francis Bay duty crew were activated following a request for assistance from the Chokka fishing boat GALAXY reporting a 29 year old Port Elizabeth crewman onboard to be suffering Hemoptysis and breathing difficulties.Paul Hurley, NSRI St Francis Bay station commander, said: “Our sea rescue craft SPIRIT OF ST FRANCIS II launched and we rendezvoused with GALAXY 4 nautical miles off St Francis Bay. The patient was stabilised by our NSRI medics, transferred aboard our sea rescue craft and brought to shore where a Private Care ambulance services ambulance transported him in a stable condition to hospital for further treatment.“At 06h30, Thursday, 02 October, our NSRI St Francis Bay volunteer sea rescue duty crew were activated following a request for medical assistance from the Chokka fishing boat VULGARIS reporting a 42 year old Jeffreys Bay crewman onboard to be suffering continuous seizures.“SPIRIT OF ST FRANCIS II launched and we rendezvoused with VULGARIS 1 nautical mile East of the Cape St Francis Lighthouse.“On arrival on-scene the Chokka fishing boat crew confirmed that the patient had just stopped breathing and our NSRI medics transferred aboard the Chokka fishing boat where we initiated Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) efforts and the patient, secured into a Stokes basket stretcher, was transferred onto our sea rescue craft and CPR efforts continued. On reaching the Port of St Francis we were met by a doctor and by paramedics from Private Care ambulance services who continued with extensive CPR efforts but after all efforts to resuscitate the man were exhausted the doctor declared the man deceased.“The body of the deceased fisherman has been handed into the care of the Police and the Forensic Pathology Services and Police have opened an inquest docket.'
