The St Catherine's volunteer crew were preparing for their Sunday morning exercise when their casualty care training was put into practice to assist with a boy who had fallen off the slip at Little St Catherine's into shallow water.

The routine Sunday morning exercise for the St Catherine's crew had an unexpected practical element as their casualty care skills were required to assist with a land-based incident. On the point of launching the lifeboat for the exercise the helm noticed some unusual activity by the slip at Little St Catherine's and so paused the launch to check the situation. It turned out that a young boy had fallen off the slip into shallow water and had hurt his legs. He had been able to pull himself up the beach but was in some distress so the afloat exercise turned into a real-life casualty care situation.

The crew, who maintain ongoing casualty care qualifications, stepped in to assess the casualty and were assisted by a local doctor who had also observed the commotion. Whilst spinal injury was ruled out, there was concern about the extent of the casualty's injuries and the boy was reluctant to move, so an ambulance was called. In the meantime the crew monitored the boy's condition and worked to keep him warm and comfortable.

Elwyn Dop, Inshore Lifeboat Helm, said about the situation: "Given the proximity to the lifeboat station and the fact that we were launching, our casualty-care trained crew were able to be on scene in very short order.

Our volunteer crew maintain casualty care qualifications and we refresh those skills continuously, so we were well-placed to ensure that the casualty in this situation was properly assessed and looked after while we waited for paramedic support. We are grateful to those members of the public who assisted, too."