A woman, believed to be in her fifties, who was airlifted to hospital after she became unwell while swimming on Lough Derg, died at University Hospital Limerick (UHL) on Thursday evening.
Emergency services were alerted to assist a woman who got into difficulty while swimming near the fishing stands on the Killaloe side of the Twomilegate bathing area.
Killaloe Coast Guard was tasked to the scene at about 6.40pm and arrived to Ballycuggeran within seven minutes practically at the same time as one HSE paramedic.
Members of the public had commenced cardiocompulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on a fishing stand near the forest area at Ballcuggeran. This was continued by two advanced HSE paramedics with assistance from Coast Guard members.
It is understood that there were a lot of people swimming in the water at the time due to the hot weather.
Assistance was requested from the Emergency Aeromedical Service, which sent the HSE’s Cork-based air ambulance, Aeromed 01, to the scene.
Coast Guard members cleared the green area of the bathing amenity to facilitate a safe landing area for the air ambulance.
The female swimmer, who managed to get out of the water onto a fishing pontoon before she got CPR, was taken by stretcher to the helicopter and flown to University Hospital Limerick for treatment at about 7.50pm. It is understood that she may have been unconscious at the time but there were signs of a pulse.
It has been confirmed that she subsequently died at UHL on Thursday night.
Up to ten members of the Coast Guard were involved in the rescue operation. Having tidied up the area, they left Ballycuggeran at about 8.30pm.
Gardai are treating this as a tragic death, but it is understood it is not been categorised as a drowning.
Dan Danaher
East Clare correspondent, Dan Danaher is a journalism graduate of Rathmines and UL. He has won numerous awards for special investigations on health, justice, environment, and reports on news, agriculture, disability, mental health and community.