Busy Easter weekend sees volunteer lifeboat crew tasked to multiple incidents

Just a few hours after returning from an earlier callout, the inshore lifeboat launched and headed to the reported location of the two people and the jetski at Ocean Bay. The lifeboat arrived and was able to see UK Coastguard on the beach. Further updated information confirmed that the the two casualties were ashore and had been checked over by the Coastguard team. The lifeboat was freed to leave the scene and about to return to station, before details of a second incident of a casualty with a suspected broken leg were reported over the VHF radio.

The crew of the lifeboat liaised with the local Coastguard team and both made their way to the second incident at Monkey Beach. A crew member was put ashore and after a quick assessment requested a stretcher and pain relieving gas Entonox from the lifeboat station. The lifeboat collected the equipment and returned to the casualty's location.

The injured man had fallen from a walkway to a pontoon and sustained a broken ankle. The man had been recovered to the walkway and needed to be evacuated to hospital. With no ambulance available the initial plan was to evacuate the casualty to the boathouse until an ambulance became free, however on further assessment of the injury the Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance was tasked to assist, to ensure the casualty could more quickly get to hospital.

Preparations were made to move the casualty pending the arrival of the air ambulance. When the air ambulance crew arrived, they administered some pain relieving medication, before transferring the casualty to the stretcher. The lifeboat crew and UK Coastguard together transferred the casualty across the rocky foreshore to the slipway and along the road to the waiting helicopter at Prince Albert Gardens.

With the casualty on route to hospital the lifeboat volunteers were free to return to station.

ILB Crew: (Helm) Becky Mack, Darren Tomes, Alan Parmenter

Volunteer lifeboat crew assisting with casualty recovery: Matt Steeden, Sam Aggas

Shore Crew: Paul Bedford, Matt Steeden, Sam Aggas

RNLI media contacts

For more information please telephone Becky Mack, Swanage RNLI Volunteer Press Officer on 07812 558487 or at [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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