Teen’s lucky to be alive

Boaties pull unconscious swimmer from water

A TEENAGER found unconscious and face down in the Gold Coast Seaway is “super lucky” to be alive after he was spotted by boaties and dragged to safety.

Queensland Ambulance Service senior operations supervisor Will Houghton said the 17-year-old, described as a “fit young man”, was swimming with friends to Wave Break Island but became distant from the group.

Passer-bys on a boat found the teen, understood to be a surfer, unconscious and face down in the water and took him to shore.

“Early reports are he was swimming across to Wave Break Island with friends,” Mr Houghton said.

“He went unresponsive in the water. It was critical that they found him. He was found lying face down in the water. No one knows the amount of time he’d been there.

“I think he had drifted from them (his friends). I think once they’d realised what had happened they were on the other side on Wave Break Island.

“He has congested a lot of water. He was taken to Gold Coast University Hospital for further assessment but he’s talking at the moment and regained consciousness.”

Emergency services were called to Seaway Dr about 6.15am on Wednesday after being notified by Volunteer Marine Rescue.

The teenager regained consciousness just after 6.30am and was taken to the Gold Coast University Hospital in a

serious but stable condition.

Mr Houghton said all involved were thankful the inci

dent wasn’t the second drowning on the Gold Coast in two days.

“He’s super lucky. I think he knows he’s fairly lucky,” he said.

“Hopefully this is an example for people out there to stay safe around waterways.”

Paramedics have pleaded with swimmers to heed warnings about water safety after responding to a spate of neardrownings, and two related deaths in just over a fortnight.

Mr Houghton said paramedics were being called to more “post-immersion” incidents at beaches, waterways and pools, compared to the same time last year.

“Since December we’ve had 23 drownings or near drownings compared to 17 last December,” he said

“In the last 16 days we’ve responded to 16 and unfortunately two of those have not been successful.

“The message around waterways is look after your mates, stay in a patrolled area with supervision and try to nominate a supervisor.”