Dungeness RNLI lifeboat responds to person taken ill on chartered fishing boat.
On Sunday 30 December at 11.33 am the lifeboat was paged in response to a phone call indicating the skipper of a local 10m chartered fishing boat had been taken ill, three miles south of Dungeness and needed medical assistance.
Once launched on service, Coxswain Stuart Adams in command of the RNLI relief Shannon class lifeboat 13-12 ‘Casandra' and her volunteer crew proceeded to the casualty’s position. Two casualty care trained volunteer crew members were transferred from the lifeboat to make an assessment of the patient and after consultation with the Coxswain it was felt that a HM Coastguard Rescue helicopter from Lydd should be tasked to airlift the patient to a hospital.
The patient was transferred from the fishing boat to the lifeboat and the paramedic from the helicopter was lowered on to the RNLI lifeboat. After it was decided the visibility at the local hospital in Ashford was too poor for landing, the helicopter returned to Lydd while the paramedic from the helicopter stayed with the patient on board the RNLI lifeboat as they returned to a waiting ambulance at the lifeboat station
In the meantime, two volunteer crew members from the lifeboat safely delivered the chartered fishing boat and her passengers back to her home port in Rye.
Coxswain Adams said ‘breaking from the Christmas holiday to respond to their pagers, the crew worked very well as a team transferring the first aiders between vessels, it was an excellent job by our volunteers’
RNLI media contacts
- Judith Richardson – Dungeness RNLI Volunteer Lifeboat Press Officer
Tel: 01797 320062/Mob: 07859264226 - Email: [email protected]
- Paul Dunt, RNLI Regional Media Officer (South East) 0207 6207416/07786 66882 [email protected]
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The RNLI charity saves lives at sea. Its volunteers provide a 24-hour search and rescue service around the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland coasts. The RNLI operates 238 lifeboat stations in the UK and Ireland and more than 240 lifeguard units on beaches around the UK and Channel Islands. The RNLI is independent of Coastguard and government and depends on voluntary donations and legacies to maintain its rescue service. Since the RNLI was founded in 1824, its lifeboat crews and lifeguards have saved over 146,000 lives.
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