Good Samaritans Help Save Man After Fall from Green Point Promenade into Sea

Ewald Bonzet, NSRI Table Bay coxswain, said: At 17h46, Saturday, 6 September, NSRI Table Bay, NSRI Bakoven and the CoCT (City of Cape Town) water rescue network were activated following eyewitness reports of a man fallen off the Promenade at Green Point Lighthouse, and in the water injured.

NSRI rescue swimmers, a CoCT lifeguard, ER24 ambulance services, Netcare 911 ambulance services, WC Government Health EMS Metro rescue squad, Cape Town Fire and Rescue Services, the SA Police Services and CoCT Law Enforcement officers responded.

On arrival on the scene it was found that a 27 year old man, from Durban, while on the Promenade with friends, had fallen off the edge of the wall into the sea sustaining serious injuries.

2 adult male Good Samaritans, from the same group of persons that the casualty man was with at the time, had climbed down a ladder to assist the casualty who had fallen, where they had managed to first get him out of the water onto rocks, preventing him from drowning, they were then encouraged by bystanders to move him to a ledge, below the Promenade wall to prevent further injury from the incoming waves.

NSRI rescue swimmers, a Metro rescue technician and an ER24 paramedic reached them below the Promenade wall where medical treatment was commenced on the injured man.

The 2 Good Samaritans, commended for their actions that contributed to saving the man's life, were not injured.

In a technical high angle rope extrication rescue operation, secured into a Stokes basket stretcher, the injured man was brought safely onto the Promenade and he was transported to hospital by ER24 ambulance, in a serious but stable condition, where he remains in hospital in the care of doctors and nurses.  

The eyewitnesses are commended for swiftly raising the alarm.