Accidents.co.za | Discussion, Prevention, Investigation and Response

Drowning – how do we decrease the risk for our children in South Africa?

It is fast becoming one of those topics where someone you know, or someone in your group of friends or family, knows of an incident of accidental drowning occurring amongst them.

It is suspected that during the summer months, the risk of accidental drowning in South Africa increases, but this almost solely applies to residential areas where pools are installed and made use of during this time. For most part, and including the larger part of the country, there are a number of people residing on river banks, or close to large bodies of water all year round. These people are thus also affected by weather conditions and the need to use the water on a daily basis.

Education plays a vital role in ensuring that people are aware of the risks involved when in close vicinity of these bodies of water, and how to assist were an incident to occur. For those of us who have the time and the means, it may be useful to complete a first aid course, where First Aid Level 1 is a two day course covering the basics in first aid, including CPR (Cardiopulmonary resuscitation), choking, impaled object management, fracture management and bleeding control.

One may also complete a short 3 hour CPR course, which teaches on how to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation on adults, children and infants. Although extremely important, we cannot exclusively focus on educating those people who have pools in their back yards relating to the dangers of accidental drowning, we need to make an exerted effort to also educate those who collect their water from reservoirs or dams, wash up in rivers, and have general large amounts of water around their areas of residence.

With regards to pools, we are all aware of the necessary safety measures that need to be in place to protect our children and loved ones from accidental drowning. If you type the words ‘Pool Safety’ into GoogleTM , pages upon pages of tips for securing pools are available, which is definitely encouraging, but type in ‘River safety’, and the pages will encourage those who canoe, do extreme white water rafting, and river guides to be cautious while performing their activities.

One of the pages found, www.ekurhuleni.com, displays some sound advice for those who may find themselves in danger when in a river:

* River currents are often stronger than they appear. You can throw a twig in to check how fast the river is flowing.
* If you are caught in a current, float on your back and travel downstream feet first to protect your head. Angle towards the shore.
* Remember that river conditions can change rapidly and without warning due to heavy rains.
* Take care on river banks. They are often slippery and can even crumble away, resulting in someone accidentally falling into the water.
* A place that might usually be safe to cross will be lethal when there has been even a slight rainstorm somewhere along the river. Rather walk a little further to a safe crossing and live another day.

Also, it may be important to mention, for those of us who either collect large amounts of water for agricultural purposes, or purely for household use as it would be in many informal settlement, it is imperative that buckets, drums, and large vats of water be covered and inaccessible to children.

And to re-emphasise the importance of pool safety, here are some tips to prevent an accidental drowning in your pool:

* Direct, uninterrupted adult supervision is key when children are making use of the pool.
* Enclose the pool in a fence with a lockable gate or automatic latch mechanism.
* Cover the pool with a safety net or similar device.
* Pool alarms that signal when there is an unexplained splash in the pool are now readily available.
* Close and lock doors in the residence if they lead directly into the pool area.
* Swimming lessons for children may reduce panic in children if accidentally submerged in water.

Please carefully consider and remember that there is no substitute for direct adult supervision with regard to children and water safety. This may be the most important factor which may save your child from being another statistic in accidental drowning in South Africa.

Information from ER24

Two males in their early twenties decided to brave the cold water of Melkbos strand and go for a mid day swim at the main beach.

Local surfer and resident chef at a well known sea side restaurant spotted the two bathers entering the water, and knew that the bathers could face some strong currents. After approximately twenty minutes, one of the bathers exited the water while indicating that something is wrong. Surfboard and wetsuit in hand the Good Samaritan rushed to the aid of the struggling bather who had drifted off a fair distance, into large swell. He managed to paddle out on his board and assist the bather to sore.

The bather was in a fair amount of shock, but managed to thank all who came to his aid. ER24 paramedics treated the near drowning victim at the scene for hypothermia. He was then transported to hospital in a stable condition per ER24 ambulance.

Andre Visser
ER24

Paramedics, Police Search and Rescue officers and eThekwini Metro firefighters responded to a report of a ship on fire in Durban Harbour.

Emergency Service Personnel arrived at the scene to find that a vessel that had been moored for salvage had caught fire while workers were stripping it with oxygen acetylene torches.

No one was injured and the fire was quelled quickly.

ER24 and the Life LSU were called to Cape Town Harbour for a female patient that had fallen approximately five metres in a ships hull.

When paramedics arrived on the scene they assessed the patient and found that the patient was in a stable condition, but due to the mechanism of injury and the patients chief complaints, they would need the assistance of rescue services to get the patient from where she landed to the deck of the ship.

Metro Rescue was called to bring the necessary equipment and perform the rescue. They loaded the patient into a stokes basket and lifted the basket with ropes via a pulley system. Once the lady was on the deck an on-site crane was used to move the patient from the ship to the waiting ER24 ambulance.

The fifty five-year-old lady was transported to Life Vincent Pallotti Hospital for the further medical care of moderate injuries.

Tristan Wadeley
ER24

[Photos by: Liesel Grantham]

A fisherman who was airlifted off a lobster trawler after a boom collapsed on the vessel on Friday has died, the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) said.

The NSRI launched a rescue operation at 04:00 on Friday to airlift the critically injured fisherman off the trawler off the Eastern Cape coast.

NSRI spokesperson Craig Lambinon said the fisherman and one of his colleagues may have been injured when a boom collapsed.

The critically injured man sustained head injuries and later died, while the other’s fingers had been severed.

The crew member with the severed fingers was in a stable condition and would be taken to shore by the NSRI rescue craft, then to hospital in Humansdorp.

The fishing trawler lay 50 nautical miles south-east of St Francis Bay and 30 nautical miles off shore, at about 04:00 on Friday morning.

The rescue team started treating the unconscious crew member, but called in an airforce helicopter to airlift him to hospital because of his injuries.

- SAPA

Icy water and the misleading depth of the Vals River with its whirlpools were believed to have led to the death of a Kroonstad man after he jumped into the water to fetch a suitcase.

“One moment I saw his head above water and the next he was gone,” said a stunned Jaco du Plessis, 22, on the river bank.

Tow-truck worker Andries Vermaak, 41, disappeared into the water in front of Du Plessis in the river that ran through Kroonstad at about 21:00.

“Andries didn’t struggle or flounder. He just disappeared.”

Initially, Du Plessis thought Vermaak, who had been boarding with him for the past three months, was joking around.

But when some time had passed and he was still under water, Du Plessis feared something had happened and called the police.

The police’s Welkom diving unit retrieved Vermaak’s body and the suitcase on Wednesday morning. A dismayed Du Plessis stood on the river bank and watched as the divers searched for the body.

Many drownings in river

The tragedy occurred after Du Plessis, and other family members had gone to fetch his 26-year-old brother Kobus from the train station in the central part of town on Tuesday night. Vermaak had gone along.

They were walking from the train station across the Alexander Bridge to Du Plessis’s house in the residential area Suidrand.

Vermaak was carrying Kobus du Plessis’s wife, Louisa’s, suitcase. While walking on the bridge, the suitcase apparently fell over the railing and into the river, said police spokesperson Msisitheki Selima.

Vermaak ran to the river and jumped into the water. Du Plessis said Vermaak “went in, swam a bit and then just went down”.

According to a long-time resident, the Vals (False in Afrikaans) River got its name as the bottom was uneven in many places. There were apparently also whirlpools. This misled people and had lead to many drowning over the years.

[Story by Johan Brits appeared in Beeld]

On one of the coldest days of the year so far, it seemed that it was meant to be when bystanders came across the body of a twenty nine year old man hanging from a tree by a rope, with his body partially submerged in the river below, in the small area of Heilige Akker in Potchefstroom.

It is as yet unclear as to whether the bystanders were physically looking for the man, or whether they just happened across him. As soon as they saw him, they activated the emergency services, and then cut him down from the tree. They managed to pull his lifeless body to a nearby island in the middle of the river, as it was more difficult to get to the river bank.

When ER24 paramedics arrived on the scene near Langenhoven street, they had no means to cross the river to the island, so the three of them carried their equipment above their heads and waded across the icy water to where the man was lying. After assessing the man, and trying to manoeuvre around a very limited amount of space, they found that he was not breathing and had no pulse. They immediately started CPR and resuscitation efforts.

Efforts continued for some time, until, miraculously, paramedics found the man’s pulse to have returned. They continued manually breathing for the man while Potchefstroom SAPS Rescue Divers assembled their equipment in order for them to bring the man to shore. In amongst these happenings, the man’s father had arrived on scene and was an emotional witness to the unfolding events.

The man was secured into the necessary equipment, and was pulled onto the river bank. He was then transported to hospital where Doctors and Nurses will further continue to fight for his life.

Two students were in an inflatable swimming pool type boat on the Potchefstroom Dam which was in flood.

They became entangled in a piece of rope in the Mooiriver, and the water was too strong and they were unable to get to the river bank to get out. They then clung to a small tree in the river until help arrived. ER24 paramedics treated the two for mild hypothermia as they had been in the water for approximately an hour.

Vanessa Jackson
ER24

A man, believed to be in his forties, nearly drowned at Blue Lagoon after he allegedly slipped off the rocks and fell into the water.

The man was rescued by lifeguards that were on duty. When ER24 paramedics arrived on the scene the patient was being treated by the lifeguards and a paramedic from EMRS for submersion injuries.

The patient was handed over to ER24 crews and was transported to Addington Hospital in a serious but stable condition.

Tristan Wadeley
ER24