"Tony Cook had managed to recover the body of the child onto his SUP and had initiated rescue breathing efforts on the child while attempting to also paddle towards shore when a rubber-duck came past Tony flagged down the rubber-duck who took the child onboard the rubber duck and raced to shore to rendezvous with NSRI.
"Our NSRI Knysna volunteer sea rescue duty crew and Police responded and rendezvoused with the rubber-duck on the shore where our NSRI medics and our NSRI doctor, dr. Trollip, initiated Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) efforts on the child.
"An ER24 ambulance responded and the child was rushed to hospital while advanced life support CPR efforts continued but sadly, after further ongoing CPR attempts continued in hospital, the child, estimated to be aged between 7 and 9 years old, was declared deceased.
"Initially there was no sign of family or any people seeming to be associated to the child in the vicinity and the child remained unidentified but it appears that later people have come forward to Police claiming that they were with the child at the time and that they had been observing the child on the water but that they had thought that the child was only swimming. Their relationship to the child and their account of the events is being investigated by Police. "Police have opened an inquest docket."
-ENDS-
Released by: Craig Lambinon
