Multiple people were caught in a rip at an unpatrolled Port Waikato beach. Photo / NZ Herald
Multiple people were caught in a rip at an unpatrolled Port Waikato beach. Photo / NZ Herald
Off-duty volunteer surf lifeguards save family swept up in a rip at Port Waikato beach.
An 11-year-old was pulled out of the water semi-conscious and kept on oxygen until paramedics arrived.
His mum and two younger brothers were also rescued.
An 11-year-old owes his life to Carl Morgan’s decision to stay back yesterday and cook snags on the BBQ after a Port Waikato volunteer lifeguard shift.
In a frenetic 5-10 minutes, Morgan and three mates went from manning the BBQ at a local film festival to plunging through the surf and only just reaching the already-sunken 11-year-old in time to pull him from below the waves.
The boy had got into trouble at Sunset Beach along with his mum and two younger brothers.
“They got swept across the beach into a huge rip,” Morgan said.
Morgan, Judd Redmon, Jack Avery and Jack Moon had earlier wrapped up their Sunset Beach Surf Lifesaving Club volunteer shift and would normally have headed home by that time.
But yesterday evening they stuck around for the local film festival.
While on cooking duties there, they saw in the distance the four family members, who were part of a larger group at the beach, enter the water.
“We were looking at them and thinking, ‘Oh, we should probably go talk to them and get them out’,” Morgan said.
“And in the time between spotting them and ... getting ready to go down and talk to them, they got swept up really quick.”
Surf rescue and paramedic teams as well as locals respond to the near near drowning of four family members at Port Waikato. Photo / Supplied
The four lifeguards jumped into “full response mode”, gripping rescue tubes and one rescue board.
The two youngest boys were pulled out fairly fast.
But beyond them, the mother in her early 30s had been swept out near a sandbar, while the 11-year-old was losing his fight to survive.
Morgan, with his rescue tube, got to the boy first.
“He was pretty much underwater by the time I got to him,” he said.
He said there’s no doubt the boy would’ve drowned if the lifeguards hadn’t spotted him from their barbie.
And even though his mum had been pushed near a sandbar, she also might’ve died as it’s often the case that parents seeing their children in trouble will keep trying to rescue them and end up drowning themselves, he said.
Pulling the pair from the water, the four lifeguards carried the 11-year-old up the beach and put oxygen on him.
The two youngest boys were fine and within 10 minutes the mother had physically recovered.
But she was frantic with worry over her 11-year-old son.
Calling 111, the lifeguards maintained contact with paramedics in the rescue helicopter and two ambulances that were scrambled to reach the remote site.
Relaying his vital signs to the paramedics, the lifeguards kept watch over him for close to an hour.
They were looking for any sign of what’s known as secondary drowning, when people can suffocate out of the water if too much water has previously got into the lungs.
Fortunately, the semi-conscious boy had begun to recover by the time paramedics arrived and decided to transfer the mum and four boys to hospital for monitoring.
Morgan said that during the frenetic rescue, the training and professionalism kick in.
“With all the training that we do and first aid qualifications we hold, when those situations happen, you get a real tunnel vision,” he said.
But a few hours later when chatting with mates, it can get “emotional”, he said.
“You get an overwhelming feeling of holy, what just happened,” he said.
Morgan said he hoped it would be the last such rescue this summer but believed it almost surely wouldn’t be.
Conditions at Sunset Beach are difficult at the moment as there are rips close to the carpark, meaning people arriving outside of patrol hours and typically entering the water in dangerous spots.
Sunset Beach Surf Lifesaving Club president Malcolm Beattie said he’s also worried that more people are coming to the beach later in the day.
His beach will be patrolled by paid lifeguards, who are typically on duty until 7pm, from Monday December 23 to mid-February, with volunteer patrols on the weekends.
But in times when paid lifeguards aren’t on duty, he’s now wondering whether his volunteers will have to work later into the evening or maybe even longer hours to try to keep people safe.
“There’s been five major incidents so far in the last three weeks that have all been out of [volunteer] hours and people were just bloody lucky that the lifeguards hadn’t gone home,” he said.
Realistically, recreational swimmers shouldn’t be entering any West Coast beaches when patrolled flags haven’t been put out, he said.
He thinks the increase in people coming later in the day could be because of new housing development and more people moving into the area and into South Auckland – some of whom might not be familiar with water safety.
Police said a member of the public discovered the person in the water near Pāpāmoa Beach Rd around 12.45pm.
A caller to the 0800 SUNLIVE news hotline said fire, police and ambulance staff had responded to the beach.
SLSNZ confirmed surf lifeguards also responded to the unsuccessful resuscitation attempt.
“The beach was unpatrolled at the time of the incident, and surf lifeguards provided support capability to Fire and Emergency New Zealand, police and ambulance services,” it said.
“The team at Surf Life Saving New Zealand extends its heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of the victim. SLSNZ is providing support to the surf lifeguards involved.”
