PORT EDWARD:Tokkie Livingstone, NSRI Port Edward deputy station commander, said:At 11h10, Tuesday, 01 June, NSRI Port Edward duty crew were activated following a request for assistance received from the sister of two fishermen reporting her brothers to be stranded on the South side of Mzamba River Mouth since Monday night.They had crossed the river to go fishing and while fishing heavy rains had rapidly caused the river to flood which prevented them from getting back across the river and they had waited out the night to see if the swollen river would subside.They were beginning to show signs of hypothermia and there were no indications that the swollen river would subside on Tuesday during the morning.2 Cellphones that they had were lost during an initial attempt to cross the river when they first noticed that the river was beginning to rise but fortunately they carried a back-up analog cellphone and they had used that back-up phone to raise the alarm declaring that they now needed help.The road trip to reach on the South side of the river, with the added complications of roadways washed away by floods, would have taken about 4 to 5 hours to reach them.The decision was taken for NSRI Port Edward crew to launch our sea rescue jet-rib, Rescue 32 Alpha, onto the river to carry out a rescue of the 2 men.On reaching them on the South banks of the Mzamba River, in relays of one at a time, they were brought safely across the river and both men were brought to our sea rescue station where they were treated for hypothermia.Once fully recovered they were collected by their sister and no further assistance was required.NSRI commend the 2 fishermen for staying on the river banks and calling for help rather than trying to cross a flooded river.The operation was completed at 14h20.On Saturday, 29 May, at 15h38, NSRI Port Edward medics responded to a local residence where a local 79 year old man had collapsed and was reported to be unresponsive.Med-Evac ambulance services were activated and they were also responding to the scene.Our NSRI medics, who were closest to the scene at the time, arrived and we performed CPR (Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation) efforts on the gentleman but sadly after all efforts to resuscitate the man were exhausted CPR was terminated by paramedics who declared the man deceased.Our Condolences are conveyed to the family.
CAPE POINT and SMITSWINKEL BAYDarren Zimmerman, NSRI Simon's Town station commander, said:At 10h07, Tuesday, 01 June, NSRI Simon's Town duty crew were activated following NSRI EOC (Emergency Operations Centre) intercepting an NSRI RSA SafeTrx emergency activation from a paddler reporting to be in difficulty on his sea-kayak off-shore of Cape Point.Our duty crew responded to our sea rescue base and the sea rescue craft Donna Nicholas was launched while NSRI EOC and NSRI Simon's Town duty controllers remained in contact with the paddler taking care to conserve his cellphone battery life that was running low.While responding to the scene a second emergency activation was received for a surf-skier reporting to be safe out of the water and on the shore at Smitswinkel Bay but requiring medical care for an injury sustained while surf-skiing.CMR (Cape Medical Response) were activated to respond to Smitswinkel Bay while an additional sea rescue crew responded to our sea rescue station to prepare the sea rescue craft Spirit of Surfski to prepare to respond to the Smitswinkel Bay call-out if required.NSRI Strandfontein duty crew were placed on alert.CMR paramedics arrived at Smitswinkel Bay and they attended to the surf-skier, a local man, who was treated for an injury sustained while surf-skiing and he was transported to hospital in a stable condition for further medical care in a CMR ambulance.The sea rescue craft located the man on his sea-kayak off-shore of Cape Point and he and his sea-kayak were recovered onto our sea rescue craft and he was treated for mild hypothermia and transported to Buffels Bay where once safely ashore he required no further assistance.The operation was completed at 14h10.Advanced technology that has been provided in the new ORC class NSRI Simon's Town sea rescue craft Donna Nicholas enabled the crew on the rescue craft to live track the casualty paddler using onboard wi-fi and a computer tablet.The combination of this advanced technology, together with the paddler having the NSRI RSA SafeTrx app downloaded onto his cellphone used to activate the emergency, which provides updated coordinates that are now received and tracked directly by the rescue crew onboard the sea rescue craft who are physically responding to the scene, enabled the rescue operation to be performed swiftly with ease and with a successful outcome.
