Eyemouth lifeboat rescues woman from St Abbs cliffs

A 65 year old woman had slipped half way down cliffs, just to the south of Horsecastle Bay near St Abbs, and suffered a broken leg in the process. The paramedics and police, who were already in attendance and had made the casualty comfortable, requested RNLI assistance with the evacuation of the woman, due to her location. Both of Eyemouth’s lifeboats were then launched and proceeded directly to the scene.

The ILB was landed ashore and its crew helped assist the paramedics administer further casualty care to the woman whilst the ALB stood off in order to provide further assistance if required, and due to the location of the incident, act as a VHF communications bridge with the Coastguard.

Once the casualty had been placed in a stretcher, two additional crew from the ALB were taken ashore by the inshore lifeboat to help recover the casualty. Working together, the paramedics, police and lifeboat crew moved the casualty from her position, half way down the cliff, down to the shoreline and into the inshore lifeboat. The casualty, along with a paramedic, were then taken by the inshore lifeboat to St Abbs harbour where Coastguard teams and an ambulance were waiting in order to transfer the casualty to hospital.

Once safely in the care of the ambulance team, both lifeboats returned to the scene of the incident in order to collect the ALB crew members who had stayed ashore during the recovery of the casualty. Once all aboard, both lifeboats were then stood down and steamed back to Eyemouth, where they were both made ready for service again.