Child and teens survive separate ordeals on the waters
A FIVE-year-old girl is recovering after her terrifying ordeal in the waters of North Kerry on Thursday when she drifted more than a kilometre offshore in strong currents on an inflatable toy.
She had been enjoying a day’s beachgoing with her family – who are understood to be from West Limerick – on Littor strand when currents pushed her out in an instant and further into the Shannon Estuary.
Luckily for the little girl, the Shannon Coastguard Rescue Helicopter 115 was close to the scene and arrived in ten minutes as she drifted towards the mouth of the Estuary.
The crew of the rescue chopper under Captain Sean Murphy were hailed as heroes for their fast-acting response to the developing situation.
Winchman Jim O’Neill even made the split-second decision to come off his winch and drop into the water to swim to her rescue when she came off the inflatable toy as the chopper drew within ten to twenty yards of the stricken child.
As her family watched frantically from the shore, Jim secured her and waited with her in the water for the arrival of the RNLI Lifeboat from Kilrush – which brought the young child and her rescuer into the Strand.
She was then airlifted to University Hospital Kerry in the company of her mother where she was checked for injuries.
The little girl was also commended for her bravery for remaining on the inflatable device – described as a toy jetski – for as long as she could.
Capt Sean Murphy told RTÉ Radio this week that the lucky girl’s stars had ‘aligned’.
Meanwhile, just two days later around the corner in Ballybunion and another drama unfolded as four teenagers were swept out into deep waters from the Ladies’ Beach by a treacherous rip tide.
One of the teens managed to swim into shore and raise the alarm as members of the
Ballybunion Coastguard and the voluntary Ballybunion Sea and Cliff Rescue Service raced to the scene. However, the three teens had managed to make it into shore by the time they got there.
“As we were pretty close, it took us ten minutes to arrive at the scene,” Capt Sean Murphy said of Thursday’s drama.
“We quickly located a little girl drifting out to sea into choppier waters, she was drifting off the shoreline, she seemed to be sitting on an inflatable toy, the lads described it as a blow up jet ski. She was wearing swimming togs. We had to do a quick assessment of the situation and decided the best thing to do was to get our winchman down to her. As we were approaching to put the winchman down to her, she came off the actual toy, fell into the water.
“At that stage we were about 10-20 yards away, Jim O’Neill our winchman made an instant decision to come off the cable and swim to her, when he did he secured her, at that stage we waited for the RNLI lifeboat coming from Kilrush, which was about five to ten minutes away, to pick them up rather than the riskier recovery to the aircraft.” On arriving at hospital the girl appeared to be showing great signs of recovery: “She was smiling and chatting and she was thanking Jim for saving her. All went well.
“I think the stars really aligned for her, she was a fortunate little girl - being there in 10 minutes was a pretty quick response,” Capt Murphy said.
Ballybunion Sea and Cliff Rescue PRO Emmet Lynch said all were delighted for the ‘excellent outcomes’ in both cases.
However, he called for the lifeguard service to resume in Ballybunion as a matter of urgency now. Mr Lynch said he understands the resumption of the service for the season is being delayed due to pandemic restrictions.