Good News
Holidaymaker saves drowning 16-year-old in Wilderness─── 10:23 Fri, 29 Dec 2017
The bravery of a holidaymaker who grabbed a buoy and swam towards a drowning 16-year-old in Wilderness on Thursday morning saved the teen's life, the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) said.
NSRI Wilderness duty controller Michael Vonk said the 16-year-old started drowning shortly after 12:00.
Instead of waiting for lifeguards to arrive from a lifeguard-protected beach 3km away, Johan Lambrecht from Strand, Cape Town, grabbed a nearby rescue floatation buoy and swam towards the teen, Vonk said in a statement.
When emergency services arrived, the teen had already been brought to shore unharmed. Paramedics then declared him "medically fit", Vonk said.
He said the NSRI commended Lambrecht and members of his family for their quick actions.
The NSRI placed the pink rescue floatation buoy at the beach on December 20 as part of its national drowning prevention drive.
Similar buoys are stationed at unprotected beaches along the southern Cape coastline and parts of the Eastern Cape coastline.
Vonk said this marks the first rescue operation that was successfully conducted with the aid of the pink rescue floatation buoy.
