Coastguard In Awe As 10-Year-Old Boy Survives For Hour In North Sea With Advice From TV

Aug 05, 2020 by apost team

A 10-year-old boy survived for more than an hour after being swept out to sea off the coast of Scarborough, North Yorkshire on Friday, August 31 thanks to advice he remembered from a BBC documentary. An inshore lifeboat eventually found and rescued the child near Vincent Pier.

Last Friday was the hottest day of the year in the UK, which meant that families from across the country flocked to its beaches, according to the BBC. Unfortunately, however, that also meant that the coast guard reported a record number of call-outs for missing children among other emergencies. One 10-year-old boy in Scarborough, North Yorkshire was among those declared missing after he was last seen near the town’s spa in the evening on Friday, August 31.

As BBC reports, the missing boy had been swept across Scarborough’s South Bay by the tide and wind for more than an hour before a rescue crew arrived. But thanks to advice he had learned from a BBC TV documentary — namely a technique that the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) calls “float to live” — the boy was able to survive unharmed.

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"We were told he'd been watching lifeboat rescues on the BBC documentary Saving Lives at Sea and had followed the advice given on the show,” Lee Marton, coxswain at Scarborough lifeboat station, told the BBC on Monday.

"We're very much in awe of this incredible lad, who managed to remain calm and follow safety advice to the letter in terrifying and stressful circumstances. Had he not, the outcome might have been very different."

According to the Independent, rescuers found the boy floating on his back with his arms spread out while shouting for help. After Scarborough's lifeboat team rescued the 10-year-old boy, he was quickly reunited with his family and brought to the hospital for a precautionary check-up.

RNLI’s life-saving “float to live” advice, which is part of its national drowning prevention campaign, emphasizes that struggling swimmers should fight their instincts to thrash around in the water. Instead, swimmers should lean back, extend their arms and legs, and slowly move them in order to float on top of the water. This allows swimmers to control their breathing and avoid drowning.  

The BBC reports that on Friday UK's coastguard dealt with 329 incidents, which includes calling lifeboats out 129 times and aircrafts 22 times. 

HM Coastguard's duty operations director Julie-Anne Wood emphasized the importance of being safe and aware of one’s surroundings while swimming on the coast.

"We also know that even the most experienced swimmer, paddleboarder and walker can be caught out by currents and tides respectively,” Wood told the BBC. "Put a timer warning on a smartphone to remind you - be aware of things like rip currents, and make sure you have a means of contacting us if things do go wrong."

What do you think about this story? Did you know about "float to live?" Let us know, and pass this story on to raise awareness about how to survive when swept out to sea.