Jaco de Jongh, NSRI Wilderness duty coxswain, said: “On 19 April at 12h18 NSRI Wilderness volunteers were activated following reports of a female fallen on rocks at Gerickes Point, near Sedgfield, while hiking with her husband and their two daughters.
NSRI Wilderness volunteers responded to the scene in our NSRI sea rescue 4×4 vehicle, and aboard our Montagu Property Group Quad Bike and ER-24 ambulance service and Metro EMS responded.
On arrival on-scene we managed to get our NSRI sea rescue 4×4 vehicle up to a certain point along the barely accessible terrain and NSRI rescuers and an ER-24 paramedic were transported much closer to the scene aboard our Montagu Property Group Quad Bike and the last few hundred meters, to reach the fallen casualty, were made on foot.
Once on-scene the patient was stabilized and we found ourselves in a race against time with an incoming Spring tide which was set to peak at 16h00 and we were clearly in the path of the rising high tide.
The decision was taken to get the husband and the two children away from the scene for safety and due to the barely accessible nature of the terrain the Metro EMS Red Cross AMS helicopter was summoned to the scene to casualty evacuate the patient.
On the arrival of the Metro EMS helicopter the patient, suffering a fracture to the right ankle, was secured into a stretcher and loaded into the helicopter and airlifted to a hospital in George in a stable condition.
The rest of the family were transported to their vehicle and they have gone to the hospital by road.
The family are believed to be living in Knysna although the husband, David Jordan, is from the United Kingdom, and the patient, Sunita Jordan, is from Johannesburg, their two girls are 7 and 8 years old.
The rescue operation was completed with minutes to spare before the area where we were treating the patient was swamped by high tide and we commend our Montagu Property Group Quad Bike which enabled us to get very close to the scene along difficult and rocky terrain a lot faster than we would have been able to get on foot.”
