Bather rescued minutes from death

The visitor had to be pulled from the water after he had gone into cold water shock.

The potentially fatal condition occurred when he plunged into the water to cool off after the temperature finally climbed into the 70s at the weekend.

Boat ramp operator Darryl Hardy and one of his regular jet-skiers saved the man, thought to be 18 or 19 years old, and bought him ashore. They wrapped him up to raise his body temperature while they waited for paramedics to arrive.

The ambulance crew confirmed the diagnosis and carried on warming up the unfortunate bather before he was taken to hospital. He made a complete recovery within a few hours and was soon discharged from hospital.

The drama began at about 4.30pm last Saturday.

The day was the start of one of the few busy weekends of the year along the seafront.

The beach was full of people enjoying the rare delights of a pleasant day. The teenager, believed to come from the London area, stripped off and ran into the sea while his family stayed on the shore.

He chose to cool off in the area of the sea reserved for boats and jet-skis. Mr Hardy launched his safety boat to advise the youth to move somewhere safer.

But his comments failed to gain a response. "He had only been in the water for about five minutes and was only in about 4ft-5ft of water but he wasn't responding to me," said Mr Hardy, who operates the ramp through a concession from Arun District Council.

"I realised that wasn't right '“ people either move away or swear at me '“ and I wondered if he had been drinking. I joined with one of the jet-skiers and we piled into the water and got hold of him. He was rigid and shaking with his arms stretched out because he had gone into cold water shock."

They hauled the youth on to the rescue boat and put him into the recovery position as they returned him to the shore.

"His family was on the shore not more than 10ft away from him and they didn't realise anything was wrong," explained Mr Hardy.

"People don't realise what the effect of going into the water can be. It's not that the water has to be that cold.

"It's the fact that it is a lot colder than the temperature of your body if you have been sitting on the beach in the sun all day. A body is not used to the sudden change in temperature and that causes it to go into shock.

"People come down to visit the town and don't appreciate what the sea is like.

"We had been on a sea survival course only about a month ago and that's why we recognised what was wrong with the lad."

Cold water shock is caused when the extremely unpleasant sensation of sudden cold water on the skin triggers a cluster of breathing and heart responses.

Their severity depends on the extent and rate of skin cooling. This immediate neuromuscular reaction can cause a series of huge uncontrollable gasps for air called the involuntary gasp reflex

Simultaneously, cold water on body skin causes the constriction of capillaries under the skin. This increases heart rate, cardiac output and blood pressure. It can cause death in certain circumstances.