A British sailor delivering a yacht from Hawaii to Australia may have been a life-saver for 24 inhabitants of a remote Pacific island.

Yachtsman Alex Bond decided to make a stop Sunday at Kanton Island, part of the Phoenix Islands in the nation of Kiribati, during his trans-Pacific delivery voyage, according to a release from the British coastguard.

Greeting him on the island were 24 malnourished residents, including 10 children. They had been living on only fish and coconuts for two months because a Kiribati government supply ship that normally brings their food had not been able to get to the island, CNN affiliate ABC News in Australia reported.
cnn.com

Tags: Rescue

Gov. Gen. Michaëlle Jean gave 47 people bravery decorations Thursday, including an Ontario girl who pulled her mother from a frozen lake and three Regina men who pulled a woman from a burning car seconds before it exploded.

The decorations recognize selfless acts that saved lives and sometimes cost rescuers their own. One U.S. Coast Guard officer received the Star of Courage, while 46 others were given the prestigious Medal of Bravery.

While some of the awards were given posthumously, recipients in attendance at a ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa included soldiers, police officers, volunteer firefighters, electricians, elevator repairmen and even children.
cbc.ca

Tags: Rescue

(CNN) — Debra Bader was taking a walk in the woods with her 53-year-old husband one morning when suddenly he collapsed. At first she thought the situation was hopeless.

Debra Bader was prompted to perform CRP on her husband, Christopher, after recalling a public service ad.

“I looked at him and said, ‘He’s dead,’ because he wasn’t moving or making any sounds at all,” Bader remembers. “But I pulled the cell phone out of his pocket and called 911, and then a public service announcement I’d heard on the radio popped into my head.”

The one-minute PSA from the American Heart Association instructed listeners, in the event of cardiac arrest, to perform chest compressions very hard to the beat of the 1970s Bee Gees song “Staying Alive.” When someone suffers cardiac arrest, as pop singer Michael Jackson did last week, the heart stops functioning completely, and brain death begins within four to six minutes if the victim doesn’t receive help.

“I sang the song and gave directions to the EMTs at the same time. It was like, ‘Stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive — take a right here, take a left here — Stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive — take this path down here — Stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive,’ ” Bader remembers.

For 15 minutes Bader, who had never taken a CPR class, beat on her husband’s chest until the ambulance arrived and the EMTs delivered a shock to his heart with a defibrillator. Christopher Bader survived, but 95 percent of people who go into cardiac arrest die before they get to the hospital.
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A construction worker dangled from a heavy-duty chain supported by a crane to rescue a woman from the swirling waters of the Des Moines River on Tuesday afternoon.

The dramatic rescue was met with cheers from spectators who had gathered on the banks of the river and nearby bridges after the boat the woman was in went over the Center Street dam.
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(CNN) — No drawn butter will ever touch Fiona’s tail. She’s an extremely rare, seven-year-old “yellow” lobster.

Fiona belongs to Nathan Nickerson, the owner of Arnold’s Lobster and Clam Bar in Eastham, Massachusetts, who has been in the restaurant business for 32 years.

The special lobster was caught off the coast of eastern Canada last week by a friend of Nickerson.
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JST

MIYAGI —
Four students from Tsukinoki Elementary school in Shibata, Miyagi Prefecture, saved a woman from being run over by a train on the JR Tohoku Line after she accidentally fell on the tracks last Saturday, JR East officials confirmed Thursday. The group swiftly and calmly rescued the woman, who escaped uninjured.

According to the Sendai branch of JR East Japan, the incident happened at around 3 p.m. The four students—three girls and a boy—had just gone over a railroad crossing when a woman in her 50s, following behind them on a bicycle, fell off it and onto the tracks. The woman was pinned under her bicycle, losing a shoe and the items she was carrying in the tumble. Just after, the alarm signaling a train sounded and the railway crossing gates came down, stranding the woman on the tracks.

The students raced back and lifted the woman and her belongings off the tracks before the oncoming freight train arrived. One student pushed the emergency button near the crossing, relaying the situation to the train conductor.

JR Sendai praised the students, saying “Thanks to their swift action, a devastating accident has been prevented.” Kiyokazu Saiyo, station master of Sendai Station, visited Tsukinoki Elementary school Thursday and presented the students with a letter of appreciation.

School Vice Principal Takashi Otsu said: “Even though the train had come into view, they didn’t panic at all and handled the situation maturely.” He added that the school was also considering awarding the students for their good deed.
Japan Today

Tags: Rescue