RIVER FALL MAN ‘LUCKY TO BE ALIVE’
MARSDEN HERO PUB LANDLORD HELD HIS HEAD ABOVE WATER IN RIVER COLNE BEFORE MAN WAS TAKEN TO HOSPITAL
A FATHER is lucky to be alive after he fell 20ft from a riverbank into the freezing River Colne at Marsden.
Eyewitnesses described how they helped the man, believed to be called James, who was left lying face down in the water with a bleeding head injury.
He was with his wife and two young children when the accident happened around 7.30pm on Saturday close to The Swan pub.
Swan landlord, 36-year-old Robbie Clarke, gave a dramatic account of the rescue operation.
He said: “I was just stood outside when this lady rushed past shouting: ‘Phone an ambulance.’
“I went to look over the wall and this gentleman was lying in the river.
“He had fallen from the riverbank on The Riverhead pub side of the river.
“I assumed he must been standing by the edge and lost his balance. It’s very muddy and slippy in that area.
“I went down and he was laid there with blood all over his head.
“With one hand I phoned 999 and held his head above the water with the other. Fortunately it is only shallow there.
“I have had courses on First Aid so it was really a matter of trying to keep him calm.
“The back of his head was a mess though. It could have been worse.
“He wasn’t making much sense, I think it was a mixture of shock and his head injury. It was between five and 10 minutes when the paramedics arrived and managed to get him out.
“He was quite a big chap, nearly 6ft tall and of quite a stocky build.
“I spoke to his wife afterwards and she was in shock and her kids were upset.”
Sue Haworth, a retired policewoman who saw the man in the river, said: “My husband Richard and I were about to go into the Swan for a drink when this woman came running towards us screaming: ‘There’s somebody in the river.’
“It turned out it was her 37-year-old husband James who lives in Marsden. Her children were crying.
“Apparently he had been sitting on the lower wall and had somehow fallen in.
“I ran to get the defibrillator and Robbie Clarke, the Swan landlord, was holding the guy’s head above the water to keep him alive.
“An off-duty paramedic went down to help as well.
“I saw him lying face down in the river. He was a bit confused and doing what the paramedics told him to do.
“He had got a big gash on the back of his head and was moaning and groaning.
“An ambulance responder turned up and then two more and they managed to walk him up from the river bank and into the ambulance.
“The whole operation took at least an hour if not longer.
“Later I saw his wife again and gave her a cuddle and she thanked me for looking after him.”
Yesterday a Yorkshire Ambulance Service spokeswoman said he was recovering in hospital.
A YAS spokeswoman said: “We got the call at 7.46pm at Peel Street. We sent a clinical supervisor and then the Hazardous Area Response Team and an ambulance. He was taken to LGI with a head injury.”