Record-breaking life savers

It was a record-breaking week for lifesavers in North Clare when for the first time since it was founded Doolin Coast Guard attended four incidents in 24 hours.

On Monday evening the team was called to conduct a search near Spanish Point. On Tuesday, the crew dealt with a further three incidents, one immediately after the other.
“We wouldn’t normally be called to administer first aid in towns and villages but we happened to be passing at the time. We were coming back from the first incident and came across two more and just gave a bit of a hand and helped out until medics arrived,” said Mattie Shannon, officer-in-charge at the unit.
“We haven’t had three callouts on the one day before. This would be a first for us,” he added.
At 10.20am on Tuesday, Doolin Coast Guard was called to an incident near Gleninagh on the North Clare coast after a man fell while fishing on the rocks. The team administered first aid before they, along with ambulance personnel, took him back to the road where he was then brought by ambulance to University College Hospital Galway.
As the team returned to Doolin they saw a man had collapsed on the street. The team administered first aid, stretchered him from the road and attended to him indoors until an ambulance arrived and took him to Ennis hospital.
As they returned from this incident in Lisdoonvarna, Coast Guard members came upon a woman who had fallen from a horse onto the road in Doolin. An ambulance had been called but the team attended to the injured woman who had hurt her shoulder and arm in the fall. This woman was also taken by ambulance to Ennis General Hospital.