Lifeboat Ferries Injured Woman To Shore

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Local crews to the rescue in Eel Pie Island accident

Chiswick and Teddington lifeboats were called to an incident at Eel Pie Island on Sunday afternoon following reports of a woman in the water.

Teddington lifeboat was the first to arrive at 15.40 to discover that the woman had been brought out of the water by friends using a tarpaulin.

Paramedics had crossed to the island and were administering first aid to the woman who had sustained serious injuries and broken bones.

As Eel Pie Island is only connected to the mainland by a pedestrian footbridge, it was Chiswick's lifeboat that came to rescue by transferring transfer the injured woman. After being placed on a spine board, and then into the stretcher, she was taken by the lifeboat to an ambulance waiting on the shore.

The lifeboat crews are all trained in first aid and frequently train for this type of incident, often in joint exercises with the London Ambulance Service, where casualties with suspected spinal injuries have to be safely moved with minimum disturbance in very difficult conditions.

Unlike Chiswick which has a permanent crew on standby, Teddington lifeboat relies solely on local crew members responding to calls on pagers, as at the RNLI coastal stations. Lifeboat

Operations Manager Malcolm Miatt said “We can only respond to incidents like this with the volunteer crews. We are keen to recruit more crewmembers in Teddington who live or work close to the lifeboat station and can respond to call-outs during daytime on weekdays. Anyone who is interested can call me on 07802 910942”.

The RNLI has 233 lifeboat stations including four on the Thames. Chiswick RNLI lifeboat became operational on the 2nd January 2002. Since then it has responded to over 1,000 emergency calls. The four Thames lifeboats together have responded to over 3,500 calls. The RNLI is entirely supported by voluntary contributions.

 

June 20, 2007