Surfer dies despite his son’s frantic effort to pull him out of the water and perform CPR after a ‘medical episode’ causes him to fall off his billowing ski
- A 74-year-old man drowned after a suspected medical episode
- Dragged unconscious from the water by his own son
A surfer has died after a suspected medical episode while in the water, despite being pulled ashore unconscious by his son.
The 74-year-old was surfing around 7:30am on Wednesday in Currumbin Alley, on the south side of the Gold Coast, before falling off his wave ski and failing to resurface.
The man’s son then dragged him to shore, aided by local residents and surf instructors, where they desperately performed CPR to revive the man.
Emergency services arrived shortly afterwards and took over the CPR attempt, but were unsuccessful.
The man died after about 30 minutes of CPR.
Emergency services arrived on scene after the man’s son and nearby surf instructors pulled him ashore and spent about half an hour resuscitating him.
Gold Coast chief lifeguard Chris Maynard told the Courier Mail the man was a local surfer.
“(He was) unconscious, not breathing, not a good situation,” Wade Brenchley, a witness to the tragic incident, told Nine News.
“(They were) just trying to help get the man to shore where we could take him to a safe palace and I think we could start CPR.”
Justin Payne of the Queensland Ambulance Service said that ‘despite CPR efforts by family, lifeguards and paramedics who arrived at the scene, the patient could not be revived and has since died’.
The man could not be resuscitated and died on the spot, becoming one of many recent drownings on Queensland beaches this year
The incident is one of many drownings on Queensland beaches this year.
A 39-year-old man from Ipswich drowned on February 13 while swimming in a large swell off Kings Beach, just south of the Sunshine Coast.
That incident was just a few weeks after Jye Mattern, 21, disappeared while swimming with his brother at nearby Teewah Beach.
A 74-year-old surfer drowned on Wednesday after succumbing to a suspected medical episode and being dragged from the water off Currumbin Alley on the Gold Coast (stock image)
The incident also comes just two weeks after a man nearly drowned on popular Noosa Beach on March 2, a day after a woman’s body washed up on neighboring Peregian beach.
Statistics show that 31 people died from drowning across Australia last month.