News & Media

At 1430hrs on Saturday 2nd April 2011, the duty team at Marine Rescue Cottage Point received an urgent radio message from a nearby yacht that a small child had suffered a head injury from a fall on-board and required medical attention.  An ambulance was immediately called, and a few minutes later the 37’ Beneteau yacht with the child on-board berthed alongside the wharf at Cottage Point.

The injured child, a 3 year old boy named Charlie had fallen through an open skylight on the yacht’s deck for about 2.5 metres and landed on his head.  He was in pain and shock, and was taken quickly to the Cottage Point base to be comforted.  Advice from the Ambulance operator was to keep him as calm as possible, avoid any movement of his head or spine, and to place him on oxygen. The duty team’s first aid training kicked in and Charlie was kept safe and well while awaiting the ambulance.

On arrival, the ambulance took the injured lad and Mum to North Shore hospital for treatment.  This left his Dad and his four year old brother 11 miles from their car at Newport, with the prospect of a two hour boating trip back there before they could get to the hospital.  The Cottage Point team took the initiative and sped them back to Newport in CP20 so they could quickly re-join the family at hospital.  The duty team then motored the Beneteau yacht slowly back to Newport and placed it in its berth before returning to Cottage Point by 1900.