Nomination for Surf Life Saving SA’s Rescue of the Month

6 Jan 2021 by Laura Odell

Port Noarlunga Jetty Tuesday 22 December 2020

South Port members were celebrating Leo Oliver’s (SRC) 14th birthday including close mates Mali Gilligan (13), who had only just gained his SRC on the weekend, and Damon James (SRC) (14) and decided to head to the local bakery.

Seeing it was a nice day they decided to walk to the Port Noarlunga jetty at approx. 3pm.

Water conditions were choppy with wind at 30km in a south-westerly direction.

The boys walked to end of the jetty when they heard someone screaming for help. It was a male snorkeler 30/40 years caught in a rip yelling that he can’t swim.

All the boys knew they had to help the person in trouble. Without thinking, their Surf Life Saving training kicked in with them realising they needed to act fast as the man had now started to panic.

He was about 50m north of the jetty, 20m from reef and 300m offshore. Mali Gilligan yelled out to the man reassuring him that they had seen him, to not panic and they were coming to assist.

Leo Oliver had noticed the rescue buoys attached to the jetty so ran to the closest one to grab it. There was a struggle to remove the buoy from its housing and once removed, the boys we were unsure if there was enough rope attached to reach the man as he was still drifting away from the jetty.

They decided the best option was to undo the rope while on the jetty to enable them, if required, to proceed further to affect the rescue with two members of the public assisting to untie the buoy.

Leo Oliver entered the water with the buoy and swam toward the patient. At this stage the patient was now struggling in the water.

After reaching the patient and remembering all their training, Leo Oliver reassured the patient and passed the buoy to the patient making sure not to get too close for his own safety if they panicked.

Both Mali Gilligan and Damon James were able to reassure the man from the jetty and using the jetty as a platform were able to maintain a line sight to the patient helping guide Leo Oliver back to the jetty.

Once the man was able to grab the buoy and was secured, Leo began to swim the man back to the jetty stairs. Exhausted from the swim, Leo passed the rope to Mali and Damon who assisted in pulling the patient to the jetty stairs.

Once on the jetty, the boys continued to monitor the patient with Damon asking the patient questions to make sure he was ok, such as if he had swallowed any water or was he feeling unwell.

The boys escorted him back along the jetty then down onto the beach where he had left his gear with the boys continuing to asked if he was ok.

Patient declined any further help and remained at the beach.

HUGE congratulations and thanks to Leo, Damon and Mali for assisting the patient who may have lost his life if the three young men hadn’t taken control of the situation.

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