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Two Italian brothers and their families are in Ireland this week to meet the coastguard rescue crew who saved their lives in February 2019.
Ricardo and Giovanni Zanon were swept into the sea at Poll na bPéist on Inis Mór and were rescued by Rescue crew 115, among whom was winchman Philip Wrenn.
Ricardo Zanon explained to RTÉ radio's Morning Ireland that he fell 20 metres into the sea. "I just remember a grey wall of water coming towards me, it was completely dark, I thought 'I'm going to die now' in the fall, luckily when I saw I wasn't dead I was a bit surprised and then there was a lot of being dragged around by waves and then at last we saw that other tourists had called the coastguard.
“I remember this helicopter and then Philip coming down — when I saw him I had the feeling ‘this is going to be ok — we’re going to get out of here.’ It was like that, although I got injured, but we made it, it wasn’t that easy.”
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Philip Wrenn said that the brothers had been knocked off the cliffs surrounding Poll na bPéist by a west coast phenomenon of higher than average waves that hit every seven or eight waves.
“While I was down there treating the guys another wave came in and hit us which upset the scene there.
“When we got on scene I started treating Ricardo as he had the most serious injuries. When I was trying to get him onto the spinal board the wave came in and hit us, but it threw us all forward under the water and I had to try to hold Ricardo. The way the shape of the rocks and the land is there the water swept in and tried to sweep us back out again, again I was holding Ricardo under the water.”
The Italian’s injuries included a shattered tibia and a broken pelvis. “I wasn’t able to stand up, I was like a rag doll.” He was also bleeding a lot, but the cold February water was an advantage in that it slowed down the bleeding. “I was lucky the water was so cold. I could have bled to death.”
Winchman Wrenn pointed out that the rescue was a team effort — Capt Colm O'Grady, co-pilot Art Hyland, winch operator Kieran McHugh, two staff at base — Hugo O'Grady and Liam Hannon.
“You can’t train for every event, but we train quite rigorously and foresee different scenarios. As a winchman, when you’re on the deck of a boat or side of a mountain, you have to think on the hoof, make split second decisions — that comes from experience. Within CHC there’s a wealth of experience, myself it’s 12 years, there’s guys in there with 20 years experience — no amount of money can buy that.”