Elderly man recovers from swimming incident

An elderly man is recovering in hospital after he was pulled from the water at Umina Beach on December 3.

It is understood that the 70-year-old was swimming with his family when he got into difficulty just after 5:30pm.

He was pulled unconscious from the water by distressed family members.

A Umina Life Saving crew, who were conducting an IRB training exercise nearby, responded to the incident.

They radioed into the State Operations Centre and requested an ambulance to attend.

The relatively new radio operator who fielded the call was a Central Coast local and was able to assist emergency services to the precise location with her knowledge of the area.

Initial First Aid treatment was provided to the man by the responding lifesavers until the paramedics arrived and took over.

Two Central Coast duty officers also attended to provide assistance and to ensure the welfare of the responding members.

Fortunately, the man regained consciousness and he was later transported to hospital to undergo further health checks.

SOURCE:

Media release, 4 Dec 2017

Liam Howitt, Surf Life Saving NSW