Rescue of man who woke up all at sea
AMAN who fell asleep on Southport Beach had to be rescued – after he woke to find himself half a mile out to sea.
Southport Lifeboat said the man, originally from Libya, had been walking along the sands and was about half a mile out from Southport Pier when he lay down on a sandbank in the sunshine and fell asleep.
But the tide sweps in quickly on the long, flat beach at Southport, and the man was shocked to wake up and find that the tide had come in and surrounded him, cutting him off.
Crews from Southport Independent Lifeboat and RNLI Lifeguards were quickly on the scene.
Southport Lifeboat was paged at 6.04pm on Tuesday with quad bikes and the lifeboat racing to the scene.
An RNLI beach lifeguard swam out to the man, who at this point was in considerable difficulty, and recovered him on his rescue board.
The quad crew waded out and assisted the lifeguard in bringing the casualty back to the shore where the two crews worked together to give him medical attention.
One crew member of Southport Lifeboat navigated two paramedics down to the tide line in their 4x4 to take over the first aid of the man who was suffering from shock, mild hypothermia and “secondary drowning”.
The casualty was then transferred to an awaiting ambulance on the sea wall with assistance from the Ambulance HART team, Southport Coastguard Rescue Unit and Merseyside Fire and Rescue service, where he was taken to hospital. He is understood to be in a stable condition.
Keith Porter, senior coxswain of Southport Lifeboat, said: “As we approached the casualty it was clear to see he wasn’t in the best condition, but our crew and the RNLI beach lifeguards acted quickly and professionally to ensure the casualty was stable and comfortable when the paramed- ics arrived. Southport Beach is so flat that you do not notice the sand banks and it is very common for the tide to come around the back of people and cut them off from the beach.
“Thankfully the emergency services have again worked well together to ensure a positive outcome and we wish the gentleman a speedy recovery.”