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  • Fisherman Dies During Rescue

    Fisherman dies from head injuries during rescue

    By Eoin English
    A FISHERMAN and father of three young children died on board a coastguard rescue helicopter yesterday after suffering devastating head injuries in an accident on a trawler off the Cork coast.


    Seán Lynch, 34, from Castletownbere in Co Cork, passed away 10 minutes after being winched off the Roise Catriona trawler about 110km off the south-west coast early yesterday morning.

    An experienced fisherman, he was only 20 minutes from medical treatment which was on standby at Cork airport.



    Originally from Eyeries in west Cork, Mr Lynch lived with his wife Deirdre and their three young children — the eldest, a boy, is 10, and two daughters, the youngest of which is two — at East End on the outskirts of Castletownbere. His late father, Jackie, ran the popular East End bar.

    The alarm was raised at 4.40am when the Castletownbere-based trawler owned by Damian Turner, made an emergency call to Valentia coastguard station.

    It was not clear last night which skipper was on duty at the time. The vessel was about 48km south of the Fastnet when crewman Mr Lynch was apparently struck by a heavy-duty thick rope. He suffered severe head injuries and his condition was described as critical. Valentia tasked the Shannon-based Sikorsky coastguard helicopter to the scene and as the trawler returned towards the shore, the helicopter arrived over it about an hour later. While its crew of three has medical training, they are tasked specifically for search and rescue operations only. There is no doctor on board. Mr Lynch was airlifted on board the chopper and it set a course for Cork airport — about a 30-minute flight away — where emergency medical staff were on standby.

    The helicopter was 10 minutes into its flight when Mr Lynch lost his fight for life. It landed at the airport at about 7.45am and Mr Lynch’s body was transferred to Cork University Hospital where he was pronounced dead at about 8am.
    A postmortem will be carried out to establish the cause of death.

    Gardaí are planing to take statements from the crew members, however, the incident is being treated as an accident.

    Well done to the Heli Crew, they done their best. However I do have a big issue with the fact the Heli can only land at Cork Airport, and the patient has to be transferred by road to CUH, which is 7 miles away. In the past, (when we had health boards and people got better when they went to hospital, instead of going home with something they caught inside), CUH has its own helipad, only a hundred yards from the door of A&E.
    But the HSE decided to rebuild the hospital, and a helipad was not in their plans. Someone suggested the roof, but the cost factor ruled it out. A pay while you stay car park was though. Currently the Air Ambulance has the option of landing at an adjacent playing field. Guess where the HSE want to build the new Private hospital?

    I know it wouldnt have made a difference in this unfortunate case, but who has to die to make them realise?


    Catch-22 says they have a right to do anything we can't stop them from doing.

  • #2
    What happened to the hospital in Bantry..was good enough for me when I was landed there with spinal injuries in the past or was it because I was a public patient although i have to say the care I recieved was top class ..but only because I was catholic..and had a supply of chocolate and threatened to beat the shit out of the SHO and I could beat the entire night staff at cards and I told the night porter I would disembowel him if he tried to shave me..

    But wasn't abad place really
    Covid 19 is not over ....it's still very real..Hand Hygiene, Social Distancing and Masks.. keep safe

    Comment


    • #3
      Hey Hpt,
      Funny you should mention Bantry Hospital. There's an article in the current issue of Flying in Ireland about Bantry Airfield. Mentions that a new extension to the hospital made it unsafe for helicopter landings, but on the other hand there have been two Air Corps air ambulance missions this year that operated from the airfield at Bantry.

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by Goldie fish View Post
        Well done to the Heli Crew, they done their best. However I do have a big issue with the fact the Heli can only land at Cork Airport, and the patient has to be transferred by road to CUH, which is 7 miles away.
        This is also a major issue in Southampton. The Hospital is a regional trauma centre and at present, Coastguard, RAF & the air ambulance have to land over 2 miles away because there is no helipad.

        But as usual, major funding problems are always lurking.

        Comment


        • #5
          15 mins during the day & 45 mins at night is the internationally accepted standard

          But why aren't they on call at the airport? (they go home at Shannon, according to a recent book)

          Comment


          • #6
            A busy international airport, where your hq is located under the approach path and next to the main taxiway, is possibly not the best place to get proper sleep.

            I remember there was a similar issue though relating to Dh248, in that the time taken to reach the airport was added to the crews time on task.


            Catch-22 says they have a right to do anything we can't stop them from doing.

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by Goldie fish View Post
              A busy international airport
              Not many movements at Shannon after 11.30pm. A few charters in the summer and the odd diversion. The hangar is quite a bit away from being under the main approach path, but it is beside a taxiway. Nothing a sound proofed rest area couldnt deal with.

              Edit: Not that it appears to have mattered in this instance anyway.
              Last edited by Jetjock; 7 November 2008, 22:17.

              Comment


              • #8
                “It’s a dangerous enough industry to think that they can’t be rescued immediately,” she said.
                You don't get instant help on the mainland, shows the woman has not grasped the full realities of being on a small fishing vessel miles off shore either at day or night, of course after losing her husband its understandable she is trying to find a reason.

                May he + Rest In Peace +

                Connaught Stranger.

                Comment


                • #9
                  The poor woman lost her husband give her some respect.

                  She has merely high-lighted that the 45min stand-by issue. 45min stand-by at night is the international standard, this is a department level issue. The contract is 15min stand-by from 0730 to 2100, from 2100 to 0730 its 45min stand-by. Maybe it does have to be reviewed and cost should not be a factor. But sure cost should not be a factor in our Schools/Cancer Vacs etc..............................

                  I will not talk in to much detail about the job in question as it is still a matter for the courts and is an open case.

                  What I will say is that, how does anyone on this forum know what was said by this woman out-side of what the papers have said. (she did thank the crew for there efforts low and behold the papers did not print this)
                  This woman owes no thanks to anyone as the crew were only doing there job. SAR is very often a thankless task, if I was in it for praise I would have left it a long time ago.

                  Leave this woman alone she is trying to recover from losing her husand.

                  Seán Lynch, Rest In Peace....
                  Although I have walked in the valley of the shadows of death I fear no evil...

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Internationally the reason for the 45 mins is to allow the crew time to wake up if asleep and the extra planning time required, not to get from there home to the base. As far as I know 15 & 45 mins is the maximum time!

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Dev, our right the 15/45 min's are the maximum time.
                      But
                      "Internationally the reason for the 45 mins is to allow the crew time to wake up if asleep and the extra planning time required" Very true..

                      "not to get from there home to the base" I would like you to see where you got this information..... It not true.
                      Although I have walked in the valley of the shadows of death I fear no evil...

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