Neighbours raise alarm after man falls into river

Neighbours raise alarm after man falls into river

25 February 2015

AN Ardglass man who fell into the village’s Mill River last weekend was just minutes away from death.

Paramedics who treated Christopher Mullan told him had he spent another 10 minutes in the freezing cold river, which runs alongside the Seaview housing estate, he would have died from hypothermia.

The 37 year-old had been on his way to his girlfriend’s house when he sat down on a small wall above the river where it makes its way under the Strangford Road and out into the harbour.

Christopher can remember stopping to roll a cigarette but everything that happened afterwards is a blur as a result of him hitting his head which left him drifting in and out of consciousness.

“I remember sitting down to have a smoke and after that my only recollection is waking up in the Ulster Hospital’s casualty department,” he recalled. “I had been in the water for about 45 minutes before the paramedics arrived. They told me later that had I been in the water for 10 more minutes the hypothermia would have killed me.”

A Seaview resident who passed Christopher sitting on the wall on Friday night had been in his home for about 20 minutes when he decided to go out and check if everything was okay. He walked along the river bank and spotted the 37 year-old lying in the water.

The neighbour raised the alarm and paramedics, fire fighters, police officers and members of the South Down Coastguard team rushing to the scene. The Irish Coastguard helicopter was also launched and used its powerful searchlights to help fire fighters and paramedics attend to Christopher.

The injured man’s girlfriend, who watched the rescue drama unfold in front of her, said Christopher was lying on his back in the water and said it was extremely fortunate there wasn’t a high tide.

“If the river level had been swollen by the high tide Christopher would not be here today,” said Tracy Sloan. 

“All the emergency services did a terrific job and Christopher and I will never be able to thank them enough. All Christopher’s clothes were taken off him because they were soaking and he was wrapped in a foil-like material and taken straight to hospital.”

Tracy explained fire fighters cut a fence beside the river to allow paramedics access to Christopher who was placed on a stretcher and taken to hospital.

She added: “Christopher owes his life to our neighbour and the emergency services. They were all just brilliant and we cannot praise them enough.”

The weekend incident has sparked fresh calls for the Mill River to be piped. Seaview resident Anne Murphy has been campaigning alongside councillor Dermot Curran to have a small section of the river piped to prevent an incident like the one which occurred last Friday night.

The duo have been lobbying the Rivers Agency for the work to be carried out, and Mrs. Murphy plans to raise the issue with Stormont Agriculture Minister Michelle O’Neill.

She added: “We are lucky not to be dealing with a tragedy. What if an elderly person or a young child had fallen into the freezing cold water? While there is a need for part of the Mill River to be piped, something also needs to be done at the Strangford Road close to the entrance to the Seaview estate where only a small wall separates a footpath from the river. This area needs to be fenced off. We simply cannot leave things the way they are.”