Dramatic rescue of man stuck in mud in Southern Moreton Bay Island
New details have emerged around the race against time to rescue a man stuck in mud as water rapidly rose above his shoulders, with quick-thinking paramedics improvising a raft to reach him as they swam out in just their jocks.
Emergency Services
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A team of rescuers in a race against time to free a man from the mud off the Southern Moreton Bay Islands fashioned a makeshift raft and winched him to safety as the tide rose as high as his neck.
The man, aged about 62, stepped off his tinny and began to sink between Tabby Tabby and Eden islands around 4.30pm.
He managed to call for help and a Volunteer Marine Rescue boat and another nearby vessel rushed to the scene.
They found the man stuck in thick mud and unable to move, sinking deeper as the tide came in.
Quick-thinking paramedics Peter Carrie and Eden Venturato “stripped down to the jocks” and swam through dark and murky waters off Tabby Tabby Island with a rescue raft they’d made from a stretcher and life jackets.
“When we arrived on scene he was wedged in the mud near the boat,” Mr Carrie said.
“We were on scene for 10 minutes and the tide rose within six inches in that time.”
They called in the chopper, but decided they needed to take matters into their own hands to save his life.
“We made a makeshift flotation device out of a scoop stretcher with three life jackets underneath so we could actually go out and assist the man.
“We decided to take to the water, stripped down to the jocks and out we went.”
The paramedics tied themselves to the VMR boat and swam out with life jackets on to the man, who had been stuck in the mud for about three hours.
They were able to get the man onto the raft within 10 minutes, as water was lapping around his shoulders.
“Within five to 10 minutes it would have been not a good situation,” Mr Carrie said.
Ms Venturato said they had to venture through 55m of mud and murky water to reach the man as the tide was rapidly rising.
“Luckily (the helicopter) did come when they did, because it was going to be a 30-40 minute trip back … and he needed to be in hospital then, he’d been cold for three hours,” Ms Venturato said.
“The sun had gone down at that point … by the time we had got back to the vessel there was no mud left, it was all covered in water.”
Ms Venturato said the man, known as Wayne, was incredibly grateful.
“Pete said ‘you owe us a carton’ and he said ‘I’ll buy you the whole liquor store’,” Ms Venturato said.
“It was good we didn’t get any little bull sharks nipping at our toes,” Mr Carrie said.
Volunteer Marine Rescue Jacobs Well president Stewart Wall recounted the massive rescue to The Courier-Mail, saying his crews were the first to be called by a distressed pair of fishermen.
“Two fairly elderly gentlemen in a small boat got themselves in a very difficult part of our world down there, and were stranded by the tide,” Mr Wall said.
“One man stepped out of the boat and tried to push the boat off the mud, and that was completely impossible.”
The man, 62, began to sink in the soft, silty mud and became trapped – separated from his mate still on the boat.
Mr Wall said the area where they were stranded – between Tabby Tabby and Eden islands – was “very shallow” and surrounded by mud “too soft to walk on”.
“It’s not a place where you want to end up.”
Two marine rescue boats set out to search for the men in a “maze” of waterways and creeks.
They were eventually located about 4km from Jacobs Well boat ramp, but crews couldn’t get within 50m of the men due to the low tide.
“When they were finally located they were well beyond where they could get any rescue vehicle near them,” he said.
Crews had to communicate with the men by shouting.
“We couldn’t get close enough to him to access, so that was then the decision to get a chopper evacuation was made.”
The man was taken to hospital, but has since been discharged.
“It was incredible work from a highly skilled team of Volunteer Marine Rescue personnel, Queensland Ambulance Service paramedics and the QG Air helicopter crew,” Queensland Ambulance Service spokesman Michael Augustus said.
“This was a complex operation … the paramedics should be congratulated for their ingenuity in getting to the patient in time.”
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