Holidaymaker saves boy from drowning at Shaka’s Rock tidal pool

A ten-year-old boy from Shaka’s Head almost drowned this morning at 11.15 in the Shaka’s Rock tidal pool at Catfish Bay.

The boy was with three of his friends and was the last to jump into the water. Unable to swim, he struggled to keep his head above water and began to sink below the surface when two of his friends got out of the pool and ran for help.

Ballito resident and eyewitness to the incident, Bernie Kruger, said that the boy’s survival was thanks to the quick response of a brother and sister on holiday from Gauteng, Salt Rock beach lifeguards and paramedics, who all promptly came to the boy’s aid.

“I was packing up to leave the beach when I noticed that the boy was in trouble, and it was at that point that Mahmood dived in to pull him out.

When the boy was out of the water, CPR was performed on him until he regained consciousness,” said Kruger, who was on the beach with his children at the time.

Chucky Mahmood Nakwa and his sister, Firdose Nakwa, a paediatrician from Johannesburg who performed CPR on the boy, were the first to assist him, but according to Kruger, KwaDukuza lifeguards arrived within three minutes of being called and supplied him with oxygen.

Paramedics transported the boy to Stanger Hospital for further observation after suffering from symptoms of drowning but is in a stable condition. His family have been contacted and his sister is with him at the hospital.

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