David Rosenberg, NSRI Bakoven deputy station commander, said:At 14h19, Sunday, 18 July, NSRI Bakoven duty crew and the City of Cape Town (CoCT) water rescue network were activated following eye-witness reports of a drowning in progress at Bakoven.Off-duty Clifton Lifesaving lifeguard Tyra-Lee Penney (16), from Claremont, contacted the NSRI Bakoven emergency phone reporting a female teenager who had slipped off rocks and fallen into the water at Bakoven and she was being swept in between the rocks by rough sea swells.NSRI Bakoven crew, SA Police Services and Camps Bay Security responded. Community Medics and ER24 ambulance services were placed on alert.Tyra-Lee was instructed to keep eyes on the casualty and to run to the NSRI Bakoven sea rescue base to fetch the NSRI pink rescue buoy that is stationed there on the garage door and to throw the pink rescue buoy to the casualty.Tyra-Lee complied while her boyfriend Ethan Klerck (16), from Rondebosch, ran to the scene to keep eyes on the casualty.2 Good Samaritans, bystanders Wihan Koegelenberg (23), from Paarl, and Kyle Feldman (24), from Durbanville, were sitting on the rocks with their girlfriends when they were alerted by a passerby who told them that a girl was drowning.They both ran to the area where they saw a female struggling in the rough seas in between rocks and her boyfriend was attempting to assist her but he was being hampered by the slippery rocks and rough seas.Wihan and Kyle both entered the water and they were able to reach the girl and begin to swim her towards the rocks.By that stage Ethan Klerck was on the scene and he threw the NSRI pink rescue buoy to them.Between Wihan, Kyle, the casualties boyfriend, Tyra-Lee and Ethan, they were able to get the girl out of the water as NSRI Bakoven crew were arriving on the scene.The casualty female, age 16, from Observatory, and her boyfriend, age 18, from Hout Bay, were both treated at the NSRI Bakoven sea rescue base for hypothermia and for bruises and lacerations sustained in their ordeal and following medical treatment they were released to family members who had been contacted to come to fetch them.Wihan and Kyle both sustained injuries, scrapes, cuts and bruises, while assisting in the bystander rescue.NSRI commend the swift response and the combined efforts of the casualty teenagers boyfriend and these Good Samaritans, Tyra-Lee Penney, Ethan Klerck, Wihan Koegelenberg and Kyle Feldman, that saved the teenager.
SEA RESCUE EMERGENCY: 112 or 087 094 9774Released by:
Craig LambinonSEA RESCUE COMMUNICATIONSEmail:
communications@searescue.org.za |
Cell: +27 (0) 82 380 3800 |
www.searescue.org.za
