Rescued Man Fell In Sea

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31120, 25 July 1966, Page 1

Rescued Man Fell In Sea

(N.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND, July 24.

A man who saved his friend from drowning at Rangitoto Island today, returned after seeking help to find he had slipped back into the water and died.

The dead man was John Tamatl Shelford, aged about 50, of 152 Vincent street, Auckland.

During a second attempt at revival, a St. John Ambulance Brigade officer gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and external cardiac massage in a dinghy and on the beach at Islington Bay for half an hour without getting any response. Mr Shelford was searching for shellfish on the seaward side of the island about 500 yards from Islington Bay with Mr B. Peeni, of 132 Vincent street, when he got into difficulties.

“I just saw the tops of his fingers as he went under,” said Mr Peeni. “I grabbed him by the armpits and managed to get him up on to some rocks.

“I applied artificial respira- . tion on him for about three : or four minutes and he came i to. He said it was not worth i trying to save him and I told 1

hi’m not to be silly and treated it as a joke. I said, ‘You’re having me on’ and told him I was off to get a boat. He was well clear of the water.” Mr Peeni met the St. John

Ambulance duty officer, Mr D. S. Green, at Islington Bay and they set off with another man in a dinghy. They found Mr Shelford’s head and

shoulders had slipped back into the water.

“We got him Into the dinghy and I worked on him all the way back to the bay and again on the beach,” said Mr Green. In the meantime, a Tourist Air Travel, Ltd., aircraft carrying an ambulance officer, R. S. O’Connell, and an oxygen resuscitator arrived at the island but Mr Shelf ord was found to be dead.