Seventeen-year-old Dainfern College student James Smith came to the rescue during the school holidays when he played a pivotal role in saving a police officer’s life after the officer drowned while swimming in Kei Mouth in the Eastern Cape.
On 16 December, James and his family were holidaying in Kei Mouth when a trip to the beach turned into a life-or-death emergency. Singita (surname not known), a 31-year-old police officer who had gone for a morning swim, was pulled from the sea with no pulse and no signs of breathing after being underwater for approximately eight minutes.
“I was walking along the beach looking for a good fishing spot,” said James. “As I was coming back, I saw someone out in the water. I went to the lifeguards to ask them if they were going to get him out, and at that point I noticed that he was not actually afloat but facing downward.”
Two lifeguards headed out to retrieve the man but struggled against the current, prompting two other teenage boys to swim out and assist. Once they were within 10 metres of the beach, James, who had retrieved his personal first aid grab bag, went into the water to help bring the man ashore through the waves.
At this point, the lifeguards, who had been brought in from other areas for the December period, stood back, appearing unsure of what to do. James, who holds a Level 3 first aid certificate obtained at school as well as a Basic Life Support for Healthcare Providers qualification, immediately took charge.
“I checked for a pulse and there wasn’t one, and he wasn’t breathing,” said James. “At that point he could have been clinically classified as dead, so I immediately started CPR.”
While performing CPR, James instructed the lifeguards and members of the public to contact emergency services and bring an automated external defibrillator (AED) to the beach. Under James’s guidance, the lifeguards began using an aspirator on Singita while James continued CPR for 15 minutes straight before being relieved. James then inserted an oropharyngeal airway device to hold back the tongue and allow the aspirator to function more effectively. The team took turns performing CPR for nearly two hours.
As they waited for emergency services, community members assisted by bringing blankets for the patient and water for the rescuers. An AED eventually arrived and detected a small heartbeat, indicating that no shock was required.
When an ambulance arrived from East London almost two hours later, James immediately briefed the paramedics and continued assisting as they administered medication, connected Singita to an ECG machine and intubated him. The paramedics eventually stabilised Singita, allowing him to be transferred to hospital in East London.
Remarkably, Singita was discharged from hospital a week later with no neurological damage. The only lasting effects were some weakness in his right leg and chest pain from the prolonged CPR efforts.
Singita later met James at the police station to thank him in person. “He told me he was going back to visit family, and it was just before Christmas, so I am just glad he got to see them for Christmas because that’s important,” said James.
Following the incident, James was invited to the lifeguards’ headquarters, where he assisted with additional first aid training and reviewed their emergency medical equipment to improve future preparedness. The Kei Mouth Police Station also invited James back, where the station commander personally thanked him and presented him with a ‘Hero’ shirt and a framed photograph of him and Singita, along with personal messages from fellow officers.
In a special ceremony, the Honourable Councillor of Kei Mouth Ward 5, Zuko Patuluko, formally awarded James the ‘Freedom of the Town’ in recognition of his courage, making him the first recipient of the honour in the region.
James is a dedicated first aider who volunteers at a public clinic in Johannesburg, where he has accumulated over 100 volunteer hours. He is also an active member of his school’s first aid team and volunteers at various events, including a local bicycle park.
With a childhood ambition of becoming a doctor, James says his journey into healthcare began with his school’s first aid programme, which he credits as being critical to his development. “I would trust my Dainfern College first aid team with my life,” he said. “I know how good the programme is and how hard the students work. I definitely would not have been able to do what I did without it.”
Andrew Baker, Executive Head of Dainfern College, expressed the school’s pride in James, saying he acted without hesitation, showing initiative, leadership and great personal courage, and exemplifying the values the college seeks to instil in its students.
Having already assisted at several road accidents, James dreams of becoming a trauma surgeon. “If there’s one piece of advice I could give others, it would be to do a first aid course,” he said. “It’s not very expensive, and the benefit outweighs any time or money spent on it.”
James’s training made all the difference in saving the life of a young police officer.
