Man assisted by emergency services after being taken ill on passenger boat

At 1.16pm on Thursday, Seahouses inshore lifeboat and station shore crew were alerted by UK Coastguard, to a passenger vessel entering Seahouses harbour with an elderly male passenger on board who had become quite ill and was suffering chest pains. An ambulance had also been called.

Station personnel made their way on foot through the harbour construction work, to the pier steps by the harbour entrance, where they boarded the vessel, to assess his condition. The vessel could not enter the harbour further due to the tide. An ambulance first responder was also on the scene.

It was decided that after an initial assessment, and being given oxygen, the male should be evacuated to the lifeboat slip, using the inshore lifeboat, which had been about to launch on exercise.

Seahouses Coastguard officers had also been mobilised to the slip. On safe arrival at the slip, the casualty was then transferred to a waiting ambulance, where the casualty was assessed by the paramedic, and then transported to hospital. The RNLI have no details of the casualty.

The RNLI and Coastguard crews were then stood down, and the inshore lifeboat continued to its pre-planned exercise.

Seahouses RNLI Lifeboat Operations Manager Ian Clayton added, “This was a fairly straight forward procedure, which we have trained and planned for, while the harbour works are ongoing. It was a good example of Coastguard, RNLI and Ambulance Crews, including their Community First Responder, working together to achieve a positive outcome for the casualty. We hope he makes a good recovery.”