A surfer, 27 years old died at Tofino Long Beach. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the British Columbia Coroners Service investigates the incident.
According to witnesses, they saw a group of people on shore providing CPR on the victim near Lovekin Rock at Long Beach.
Watery ordeal
A construction worker named Vincent Mallaley scheduled a stroll along the shore on Tofino, Long Beach but ended up in the water was not part of his plan. He is a trained first aider and immediately helped a surfer in distress in the water. He helped pulled the man out of the water and immediately provided CPR on the victim. Staff of the Pacific Rim National Park and the paramedics arrived in the area. The paramedics continued providing chest compression on the surfer and brought immediately to the hospital for treatment.
Conditions on the beach that time were described as sunny and calm. According to the staff of the national park there are rip currents around Lovekin Rock at Long Beach. These currents can pull people swimming to be pulled away from the shore.
Mallaley the construction worker later recalled that day, together with his wife they were strolling along the shore of the surfing beach on Vancouver Island’s west coast. They saw a commotion in the water. I went immediately on the edge of the water. I heard a man shouting, “He’s drowning, and he’s drowning. Mallaley immediately headed into the water and he saw another passerby was trying to rescue the surfer. Both of them pulled the surfer out of the water. The man was already unconscious and there was a cut on his cheek. They immediately provided CPR on the surfer.
According to Mallaley, they performed CPR on the surfer for at least 20 minutes before a park ranger arrived in the area with a defibrillator. They shocked the victim but it was already late. The paramedics arrived and continued providing chest compression and brought to the hospital for treatment but eventually died.
The officials have not yet confirmed the identity of the surfer. Even if Mallaley has already experienced people dying after trying to provide CPR and first aid before, but the death of the surfer made them hard to accept that they have not revived the man. He hopes the area will be provided with better signage and better awareness of its dangers.
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LEARN MORE
Learn how to help by enrolling in a class on first aid and CPR and for more information, check out these sources:
https://www.webmd.com/first-aid/cardiopulmonary-resuscitation-cpr-treatment
https://www.mayoclinic.org/first-aid/first-aid-cpr/basics/art-20056600
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