Mother and newborn saved from inflatable boat off Canary Islands, on a route on which thousands have died
A woman and her newborn daughter amid a crowd of people rescued from an inflatable boat off the Canary Islands on Monday.A woman and her newborn daughter amid a crowd of people rescued from an inflatable boat off the Canary Islands on Monday.The command centre of Spain’s Salvamento Marítimo in Las Palmas told Domingo Trujillo, the captain of the search-and-rescue vessel Talía, that a small inflatable boat, packed with people, was adrift 97 nautical miles off the coast of Lanzarote.
Given the placid sea and the cloudy but sunny skies, the captain decided it was worth getting the other people off the boat first so that there would be more space to help the mother and her newborn. When everyone else had been transferred to the Talía, mother and baby were brought aboard and taken to the sick bay.
“We kept a close eye on her for three and a half hours, checking her vitals and blood pressure and giving her water and juice and lots of smiles,” said the captain. “We told her what a beautiful baby she had and made jokes and did other stuff to try to make the journey a bit easier. We got her and the baby ready for the evacuation and the helicopter arrived when we were about an hour from Arrecife.
According to the Spanish Red Cross, one in seven of last year’s arrivals – 6,971 people – were children. “More like the midwife!” he said. “But this happens quite a lot, even if it doesn’t get the same attention as this case. I drive a boat. I’m not a doctor or a nurse; none of us here are. But if the situation demands it, you have to make the effort and become what you’re needed to be.”
The other day, Trujillo was supervising a rescue from the bridge of the Talía when he looked down and saw a little girl of seven or eight was gazing up at him.
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