Cape Town - Over a three days, the Western Cape department of health’s emergency medical services (EMS) responded to 5 105 incidents, 30% of them life-threatening.
In one incident, a man fell 20m to his death on Chapman’s Peak.
On Sunday afternoon, the Wilderness search-and-rescue teams and a number of rescue services were dispatched to Chapman’s Peak. The teams used rescue ropes and abseiled to where the man lay. He was declared dead at the scene.
David Nel, a spokesperson for the rescuers, said: “The team assisted the police to strap his body onto a stretcher, while a rigging team brought the body up to the road.”
Department of health spokesperson, Byron La Hoe, said this was only one of the cases the EMS search-and-rescue teams responded to. They also assisted several people who had sustained injuries while hiking, including two women on the Kasteelspoort hiking trail on Table Mountain.
Rescuers were dispatched to Kasteelspoort hiking trail after two local hikers had called for help when one of them started experiencing cramps while hiking from the upper cable station.
Nel said the teams hiked up to their location and assessed the patient before slowly guiding both hikers down the mountain.
“While some incidents happen on a trail are out of a hiker’s control, the EMS appeals to them to rather hike in groups, and not to wander off the trails, and always ensure that their cellphones are fully charged,” said La Hoe.
The majority of the Western Cape EMS call-out incidents involved chest pains (790); weapon assaults (659); respiratory complaints (401); physical assaults (327); and obstetric complaints (327). The life-threatening incidents related to injuries, infections and obstetric complications.
Police also accompanied EMS teams when they responded to 93 incidents in the “red zone” neighbourhoods of Beacon Valley, Tafelsig, Hanover Park and Chicago.
