A man who fell into the Dart was lucky his cries were heard as he was close to death when he was rescued by Dart RNLI, says paramedic.

At around 11pm on Saturday, September 23, an 80-year old man fell in the water while boarding his live-on boat moored on the pontoon on the Kingswear side of the river near Hoodown.

His cries for help were heard by John Sealey on the Dartmouth River Taxi. He was not wearing a life jacket. Mr Sealey threw him a life belt and secured it but was unable to lift him from the water and called the coastguard. The RNLI Dart inshore lifeboat, the Dartmouth Coastguard SAR team and the Police were set in motion.

The elderly man had been in the water for about 20 minutes by the time he was lifted into the lifeboat and was barely responsive. Haydn Glanvill, lifeboat crew paramedic, assessed him as hypothermic and oversaw his treatment. He said: “He was lifted ashore on a coastguard stretcher by a combined team from the RNLI, Coastguards and Police and transferred to an ambulance waiting at the Lower Ferry slip.

“When his condition had started to improve he was transferred to Torbay Hospital and was admitted. I think that if he had been in the water for another ten minutes, he would not have survived”

James Hoare, RNLI volunteer helm said This man was certainly extremely lucky, he was very fortunate that the water taxi heard his calls for help and was able to help and raise the alarm so quickly. It could very easily have ended in tragedy, I would say that together we saved this man’s life.’

A spokesman from the RNLI said: “The incident illustrates how vital it is to always wear a lifejacket when transferring from a pontoon to a boat.”