A fish cleaner saved the life of a man who slipped and fell off the Kalk Bay Harbour wall last week.
Duwayne Paulse has worked at the harbour for eight years, five of those cleaning fish.
He told the Echo how he had been at work on Thursday when he heard his friends shouting that someone had fallen into the water.
“So I ran to see what I could do. Honestly, if it wasn’t for the rescue buoy that the NSRI had put in just two weeks ago, I don’t think we would have reached him,” Mr Paulse said.
NSRI Simon’s Town station commander Darren Zimmerman praised Mr Paulse, 23, Nashwell Pietersen, 29, both from Lavender Hill, and Abdullah Davids, 28, from Ocean View, for their teamwork in rescuing the 68-year-old man.
It was Mr Pietersen and Mr Davids who called Mr Paulse’s attention to the man’s plight.
Mr Paulse grabbed the pink rescue buoy and the three men ran to the end of the mole where they saw the man in the water.
“We shouted at him and showed him the buoy, then threw it in.
Luckily he managed to grab it, and we towed him around the corner where we could actually reach him, and we pulled him out.”
Meanwhile the NSRI in Simon’s Town got the call-out at 11.50am, and its rescue swimmers, along with other emergency services, responded.
NSRI stood down after it learnt the man had been rescued but ambulance and fire and rescue services continued to the harbour.
“When they arrived at the scene, the man was back on the harbour wall and was being attended to by the three young men,” Mr Zimmerman said.
They had placed the man in the recovery position to prevent him from aspirating water, and had stayed with the man until emergency services arrived to take over.”
Mr Paulse’s quick thinking saved a teenager a year ago at the same place.
Paramedics treated the man for
non-fatal drowning symptoms before he was taken to hospital in a stable condition.
