WHEN a holiday diving trip in Zanzibar ran into trouble on Tuesday, a brave young Richards Bay man became a life-saving hero.
Mauritz van den Heever tells the story of his unlikely resuscitation of a drowning Chinese tourist:
‘My family and I went from Stone Town to Prison Island, a 6km trip on a ‘traditional’ boat with a very small engine, so it takes about 30 minutes to get there.
‘Accompanying us were two Germans, our boat ‘captain’ and a group of roughly seven Chinese people.
‘After the island session, we returned to our boat to enjoy what should have been a lovely, relaxed snorkelling session.
‘After about 15 minutes, I noticed that all the Chinese tourists were still on the boat, and there was some sort of commotion. My mother grabbed me and said in a panic that something was wrong.’
Mauritz saw one of the Chinese men lying on his back in the boat, crowded by the others.
‘Before I knew it I was racing to the boat, shot up the side, fins off, chasing panicking tourists away.
‘I immediately started my DIY form of CPR, which is mostly based on what I’ve seen on TV,’ he admits.
Unresponsive
He later learnt the boat pilot had seen the man floating under the water and managed to grab him as he was sinking deeper.
‘They then proceeded to pull him onto the boat, screaming and slapping the unconscious man’s face.
‘I started by firmly pumping his chest with both hands. It felt solid and unresponsive, like a bag of cement.
‘The man lay there, wet, pale, eyes closed, not a single movement, no heartbeat.
‘This is the part where it got pretty real for me: ‘this guy is dead’.
‘I then looked up and saw all the Chinese people crying, and decided I’m not going to spend a 30 minute boat ride back with a corpse and a group of mourning tourists.
‘So I proceeded to pry his mouth open, held his tongue with two fingers and tried mouth to mouth resuscitation.
‘It felt similar to inflating a huge balloon, as his chest expanded. It was a really strange feeling, your entire breath inflating this chest of air and water.’
Mauritz persisted with a sequence of chest compressions and breathing but there was no apparent reaction.
‘Still no dramatic coughing up water or any signs of life.
‘I checked his pulse again and then I felt it, a slow, feint heartbeat.
‘I put my ear to his mouth, and I could hear shallow breathing.
‘Roughly five minutes had passed from when he was retrieved by the driver, until I confirmed that he is breathing – at which his Chinese compatriots exploded in nervous relief.
‘The man was still in grave danger as his breathing was extremely shallow and he was still unconscious.
‘At this point another boat joined us, with an Australian girl on board who works as a lifesaver in Sydney.’
After 30 minutes she was able to bring him to consciousness during a frantic ride to the shore, with his companions trying to shake and smack him to normality.
Hospital taxi race
‘We arrived at the shore with the Chinese man dazed and confused and stubborn, but very weak and coughing up blood,’ said Mauritz.
‘He refused to let us lift him off the boat, so I grabbed him, threw him over my shoulders and carried him, kicking and complaining to a waiting taxi.
‘The taxi was small! I ended up on the back seat with him on my neck, and laid him down on his side making sure his mouth stayed open. Then his wife jumped into the back with us, and we raced off to the hospital.
‘I must say, the taxi driver delivered! We were racing through the narrow streets, hazards on, flashing brights, waving our arms out the windows to kindly ask oncoming traffic to give way.
‘We arrived at the hospital with guns blazing. I got out, pulled him out of the car, onto the stretcher, and that was that for me.
‘I’m pretty sure he made it; he seemed alive enough for the hospital to get him back to a conscious state, hoping there is no brain damage.
‘I said goodbye to his wife, got in the taxi and went back to the hotel to enjoy an ice cold Coke after the morning’s excitement.’
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