High drama in coastguard airlift rescues
BUSY WEEKEND FOR LIFESAVERS
THE SHANNON Coastguard helicopter was involved in two dramatic airlift rescues in what was one of the busiest weekends for the life-saving service in west Kerry as leisure seekers got into trouble.
The first of the Bank Holiday weekend rescues involved an angler who fell from the cliffs in Dunmore Head on Thursday evening. Then, on Friday evening, a cyclist with a suspected heart problem had to be airlifted from the GAA pitch in Dingle. The most dramatic of the three rescues saw the Shannon Helicopter winching an unconscious diver from a boat off Inch to get him to Kerry General Hospital before his condition worsened.
The Kerryman understands all three are this week recovering.
Thursday evening’s accident on Dunmore Head could have been much worse, as a pensioner out fishing slipped down part of the cliff face on the Dun Chaoin side of the promontory - narrowly avoiding a fall into the water. He was strapped into a stretcher by Dingle Coastguard members and taken to the medical centre in the town for treatment.
On the following evening, football training was abandoned when a cyclist was brought by ambulance to Páirc an Aghasaigh - now the ‘ heli-vac’ point for the Coastguard for all emergencies in West Kerry - for transfer to Limerick. He developed medical complications at the side of the road and there were fears he was suffering from a serious heart ailment.
Meanwhile, the helicopter raced to a dive boat off Inch on Saturday when it became apparent the boat would be too slow in reaching Dingle where a paramedic team were waiting.
The busy weekend brought to four the number of Shannon helicopter rescues in west Kerry in almost as many weeks. A German man who fell after climbing part of the way up a cliff at in Dun Chaoin was rushed to Cork University Hospital with serious injuries over a fortnight ago. A week earlier a local man was airlifted suffering a heart problem.
Dingle Coastguard Officer-in- Charge Carol Leahy said the helicopter made all the difference to the rescue operations and thanked the GAA for the use of their facilities as a landing site in Dingle.