Sea Point: Community Effort Saves Child

At 16h49, Thursday, 9 October, NSRI Table Bay and NSRI Bakoven duty crews were activated following reports of bystander resuscitation efforts in progress on a child at Rocklands Beach, Sea Point, where Good Samaritans had rescued the child from the water.

It could not immediately be confirmed if there were people still in the water.

The CoCT (City of Cape Town) water rescue network was activated by NSRI EOC (Emergency Operations Centre).

NSRI Table Bay and NSRI Bakoven rescue swimmers and NSRI medics, WC Government Health EMS and an EMS duty doctor, the SA Police Services, Cape Town Fire and Rescue Services, CoCT Law Enforcement, CoCT lifeguards, ER24 ambulance services, Netcare 911 ambulance services and CSO (Community Security Organisation), responded

The NSRI Bakoven rescue craft Gemini Legend was prepared to be launched and Police WPDS (Water Policing and Diving Services) were alerted.

Cape Town Fire and Rescue Services arrived on the scene first and confirmed that their paramedics were assisting in resuscitation efforts on a 10 year old male child, and there were no further casualties and all were out of the water.

The child was conscious and breathing spontaneously but with difficulty.

They were joined on the scene by NSRI and the emergency services.

The child was stabilised on the scene before being transported to hospital by a Netcare 911 ambulance in a serious but stable condition. He is recovering in hospital in the care of doctors and nurses.

During the Spring high tide it appears that the 10 year old child was sitting on rocks with his brother, age 13, their dad was nearby (they are from Gugulethu, Cape Town), when waves unexpectedly and suddenly swept the 10 year old boy off the rocks into the water. His brother was able to escape from the waves to safety.

An unidentified Good Samaritan man went into the surf to try to assist.

A group of local surfers, who had just exited the water after surfing, and bystanders, on the Sea Point Promenade, had noticed the incident.

One of the local male surfers, 21 year old Devon Coombe, from Kenilworth, Cape Town, who was scanning the waves from rocks on the shoreline, preparing to continue surfing, was alerted by his fellow surfer friends, who were on the Sea Point Promenade.

Only seeing a man in the water surfer Devon suspected that it was the man who was in difficulty.

Devon launched his surfboard to go to assist when he noticed that the man, an unidentified Good Samaritan, was trying to assist a child who was in difficulty in the water, in the surf zone. Devon recognised that the unidentified Good Samaritan man was attempting to get the child’s head above water.

On reaching them, in the surf zone, Devon was able to recover the child onto his surfboard and he paddled to shore where together, with other bystanders, resuscitation efforts were commenced on the child and the alarm was raised.

The unidentified Good Samaritan man exited the water and he was not injured.

The unidentified Good Samaritan man, the Good Samaritan surfer, Devon Coombe, from Kenilworth, and all of the bystanders who assisted and who raised the alarm, are commended for their contribution that saved the child’s life.