Hikers pulled from waves thank heroic winchman
TWO Italian brothers who escaped death after they plummeted more than 20 metres from a Galway cliff two years ago were reunited with their rescuer yesterday.
Giovanni and Ricardo Zanon were dragged into the sea on February 23, 2019, while hiking around the wormhole Poll na bPéist on Inis Mór.
The Coast Guard came to their rescue after the brothers were flung against the rocks, with Ricardo being badly hurt.
Hikers had looked on as the waves swept the pair into the sea, and called the Coast Guard, which sent its Rescue 115 helicopter to save the tourists.
Philip Wrenn, an expert winchman and paramedic with decades of experience, was one of the crew on board.
He told the Irish Daily Mail: ‘There’s no feeling in it. Feelings are pushed to the side and your training kicks in.
‘There were two casualties and we got equipment down. The waves pushed us underwater.’
He said talking to the brothers and their parents yesterday ‘in a more controlled manner’ was a much calmer experience.
As soon as the hero winchman rescued the injured duo, the Coast Guard flew them to Galway University Hospital.
Earlier this year Mr Wrenn won the Billy Deacon SAR Memorial Trophy for his bravery in the near-fatal accident.
Ricardo broke 8cm of bone in his tibia and spent more than a year-and-a-half reconstructing it. The Italian hiker also broke his pelvis. ‘I thought I was going to die,’ Ricardo told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland as he recalled the terrifying incident.
‘When I fell, I landed on one leg and my tibia was shattered. The leg shot up and broke my pelvis in two places and was losing a lot of blood. I was dragged around by the waves.
‘I wasn’t able to stand up. My leg was dangling but because the water was so cold, it helped slow the bleeding down.’
He said that when he saw the Coast Guard helicopter flying towards them, he knew he and his brother would be alright.
He said: ‘I was bleeding a lot. I wasn’t able to stand up and I had this wobbly leg, like a rag doll leg. If I had to wait there longer I could have bled to death.’
And Mr Wrenn told RTÉ: ‘You can’t train for every event, but we train quite rigorously and foresee different scenarios.’
‘I could have bled to death’