Put aid plans first

By Tania Martin
Having taken the day off, Andrew Buck, of Pakenham, was spending the time with his daughter at a beach in Edithvale and had turned his SES pager off.
He said he was walking into the sea to take a swim when he glanced to his left and saw a man face down in the water about 20 or 30 metres away.
He said four or five people where standing around the man wondering what to do but not taking any actions, because they did not know first aid.
“I just went straight into SES mode, ran to the man’s side and pulled his head out of the water, and he then vomited, which was a good sign,” he said.
Mr Buck said he then pulled the man up onto the beach and placed him on his side and waited for him to stop vomiting.
He said by that time, the surf life-saving guard had come to see what was happening and asked Andrew if he could do anything to help.
Feeling the man’s pulse, Mr Buck asked the guard to get an oxygen supply as the man’s pulse was very low.
He said an ambulance was called soon after and the man was taken to hospital for further examination.
Mr Buck said although the whole incident only took 15-20 minutes, it felt more like an hour and a half.
Mr Buck said it was just a matter of being in the right place at the right time and knowing also knowing what to do in an emergency situation.
He said it took him a couple of days to get over the shock of the incident, not because he had rescued someone from drowning, but because all the people where standing around and didn’t know what to do.
Mr Buck said more people need to learn the basic skills in first aid so that they can help someone who has been in a car accident or is drowning.
“You have to think quick because you don’t have time to stand around and wonder what to do, you just do it,” Mr Buck.