Man rescued from sea is ‘critical but stable’ as concerns raised over lifeguard equipment

A man rescued from the sea on Bournemouth beach at the weekend is in a critical but stable condition.

The man, in his 50s, was dragged from the water by a woman and “two young lads” at around 12:30pm on Sunday after getting into difficulties on the eastern side of Bournemouth Pier.

He was taken to the Royal Bournemouth Hospital in a serious condition, but has since been stabilised and transferred to the intensive care unit.

A couple from Berkshire, Hellen and Paul Baird, both former responders for South Central Ambulance Service, were on the beach at the time and rushed over to give the man CPR before the arrival of the emergency services.

Hellen, who now runs a lifestyle magazine, says: “Our daughters were in the water when it happened and ran over to tell us the man was not breathing and needed help.

“Paul went running over and started resuscitation, then I took over.

“We we working on him for a good 15 or 20 minutes until the paramedic identified himself.

“I’m pleased to hear he is still alive. It is the kind of thing that keeps you awake at night, wondering what happened.”

Hellen also praised the boys who had helped pull the man out of the sea as “two lovely examples of how teenagers should be”.

However, she expressed concern about the response time and equipment of the RNLI lifeguards, who attended shortly before paramedics arrived.

“When you consider how busy Bournemouth beach gets, especially with the heatwave, we were a little bit surprised and disappointed that there wasn’t more equipment available, sooner,” she says.

“The lifeguards were not there within a minute, neither did they have any suitable kit on hand when they did arrive.

“No defib, no airways, no BVM – nothing.

“We are quite alarmed at their response timing and kit be honest.

“We now know they have a response unit which has all of these things as this arrived much later but not soon enough. This kind of kit should be plentiful and easily accessible.”

RNLI lifeguard supervisor for East Dorset, David Van Beirendonck, said: “We fully appreciate the help the member of public gave. We can’t stress enough how busy it is on the beaches. There’s not always a direct route to an incident.”

He said lifeguards had been alerted at 12.35pm.

“Once on scene, the lifeguard carried out basic life support and asked for back-up.

“A second and third lifeguard attended a couple of minutes later with all the equipment needed – a defibrillator, airway management equipment, and basic drugs. All the right protocol was followed.

“When we hand over to the ambulance service, they like to swap what equipment we’re using with their own.”

Story by Will Frampton for the Daily Echo