Positivity: A Emotional Rescue in New Zealand
Their words, not mine:
Mount lifeguards hailed for rock rescue
07.05.2006
By REBECCA McLEAN and CARLY UDYMount Maunganui lifeguards have been recognised for one of the hardest and most emotionally driven rescues they’ve ever done.
The club has received the March Nivea Sun Rescue of the Month award for their “tremendous leadership and teamwork” in saving the life of a Matamata teenager.
On March 18, the 15-year-old fell four to five metres on to rocks on Moturiki Island. The fall occurred near the end of the blowhole while on a trek with friends from the Matamata Baptist Church youth group.
Mount Surf Club President Kent Jarman said he and his club members were just setting up patrol about 1pm when he received a call that the teenager had fallen. He and club members raced to the scene where they found the teenager in a very bad way.
“When I first got there I thought `this doesn’t look too good’, you could just tell the way she was breathing,” Mr Jarman said.
“We gave her good oxygen and made sure her airways were clear and kept her as still as possible. It later became apparent she’d fractured her vertebrae and her knee.”
Lifeguards first to the scene radioed for additional support and with the help of the fire service, lifted the girl to an inflatable rescue boat where she was then taken to a waiting ambulance. Mr Jarman said the rescue was a fantastic team effort by the fire service, paramedics and the surf lifeguards.
“If there is anything to be taken from this incident it was the fantastic team effort to get the girl out and into the ambulance in 45 minutes. It’s not what our standard training is all about because in effect we look after people in the water, but in saying that, we have practised these type of rescues before. “We have trained with people in stretchers and in the IRB, but trying to carry someone over very rough terrain is not as easy, especially when you go up hills. It’s bad enough when you carry people down the hill from the Mount, it’s an absolute mission. I could just about write you a book on some of them actually, we’ve had some good ones,” he chuckled.
Mr Jarman said his lifeguards were “some of the best and most dedicated” he’d come across. Seven Mount Maunganui lifeguards assisted in the rescue that day _ nearly the whole patrol. Mr Jarman, 55, was joined by Ed Power, 35, who has since returned to his home in the UK, John Lee, 57, Owen Miller, 14, Greg Rieger, 43, Graham Barnett, 73 and Ewen Scholes, 60.
“It affected all of us really,” Mr Jarman said. “We all had a bit of a chat on Sunday and I gave everyone a pat on the back cause they’d done so well. I did think `could we have done anything better?’ It’s sad because she was so badly injured and so young, but she’s still alive and she’s still got a future.”
