[Randburg, GP and Paarl, WC 25 December 2012]
Incident times: 09:00 and 09:30
Two drowning incidents this morning have left two children hospitalised and an elderly woman deceased.
Around 9 am this morning, a call came through requesting medical assistance at a residence in Randburg, where two young children are believed to have been found in a pool. The four and seven year old child had been rescued from the water by their older brother who is believed to be around the ages of 10 years old.
It is not clear as to the circumstances surrounding the incident, but fortunately for the two younger boys, their brother pulled them out of the pool and paramedics assessed them upon arrival. The boys were both fully alert, although slightly lethargic, and it appeared that they had only inhaled and swallowed the water.
Both young boys were taken through to the Coronation Hospital in Johannesburg and were handed over in a stable condition.
Our Paarl paramedics were dispatched to the area of Mbekweni this morning at around 09:30 where there were reports of a woman that had drowned in a dam.
Upon arrival of paramedics and the Metro Rescue team, they found the woman floating in the dam alongside the road between Paarl and Newtown. They managed to get her out of the water, but sadly she had drowned and paramedics declared her deceased.
Investigations will be conducted in order to determine the circumstances surrounding the woman’s drowning.
Vanessa Jackson, ER24