THE YOUNG girl (15) that was dramatically rescued off the South Wexford coast on Sunday afternoon was yesterday transferred from University Hospital Waterford to Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital Crumlin.
The girl who was a part of a Sea Scouts expedition that had travelled from Dublin’s inner city to Wexford for a weekend excursion is said to have made a very slight improvement, but still remains in critical condition.
The teenage boy who has been hailed a hero for keeping a hold of the young girl and preventing her from drowning was discharged from the Waterford Hospital yesterday (Tuesday) where he had been treated for two days for the minor injuries he sustained during the incident.
Shortly after 2p.m. four young people, three male and one female, were standing on the rocky coastline in the aftermath of Storm Desmond and caught by a freak wave that washed them into the sea at the Hook Head Peninsula.
Two of the boys managed to exit the water independently. The other pair was airlifted to the nearest hospital.
During the rescue it has emerged that the winch operator was forced to hoist both casualty to safety at the same time, because a severe swell and worsening weather conditions meant that there was not enough time to lift one on board the Rescue 117 helicopter and return for the other.
During the recovery operation the girl slipped out of the winch-operator’s grip and fell back into the water.
The boy was placed safely on board and the winch-operator was lowered to the water’s surface a second time and successfully rescued the girl.
The girl was unconscious at the time of the rescue and it is believed she fell out of the apparatus that is called the strop because she was unable to grip it.
An investigation been launched into the incident by the Air Accident Inquiry Unit. Crew members have been interviewed and voice recordings from the aircraft have been recovered for analysis.
There has been an out-pouring of support for the rescue service, which is held in high esteem locally.
Mayor of Wexford Ger Carthy, who is also an Advanced Paramedic Supervisor, noted that he knew many of the crew members personally and they were frequently tasked to attend accidents along Wexford’s frequently hazardous coastline.
“I have to extend my support to the crew members who are extremely good at what they do. They were involved in a very difficult rescue in what were terrible conditions for anyone to work in,” said the mayor of Wexford.
The Coast Guard issued a statement also in which it indicated that the crew members had taken the correct course of action in choosing to rescue both casualties at the same time, given the severity of the weather conditions.
The preliminary investigation is expected to take two to three weeks, at which point the decision will be taken whether to proceed with a full scale inquiry.
