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South African Daniel Redman Airlifted From Hansen's Pro With Head Injury.
Author: ASP World Tour
Honolulu, Hawaii - (Saturday, February 21, 2004) – South African Daniel Redman was airlifted by medi-vac to Queens Medical Center in Honolulu this-morning, after sustaining a wipeout in the first heat of the third day of Hansen's Energy Pro competition. On what turned out to be one of the smaller waves of the day, Redman, 19, took a wipeout during his third round heat and was driven by the crashing lip of a wave onto the reef. Redman sustained various injuries to his head and is currently under observation at the hospital.
“Daniel has a broken left eardrum, stitches above his right eye, a two-inch gash above his right ear and some back pain,” reported South African team-mate Richard Sills, who spent the day at the hospital with 19-year-old Redman.
“He’s very calm and cool and collected, amazingly. He’s remembering bits and pieces of it, but not what exactly happened. "We showed him video of the wave, but he didn't really remember.
“(The hospital has) given him the full extent of tests and they’re waiting for results from the CAT scan before they touch the gash above his ear. He’s strapped down in the bed and cannot move, but I think that’s mostly a precautionary measure. He should be OK. They just want to take all the precautions.
”It happened on an average size wave but it was really round and hollow, so it had some power."
The accident happened mid-way during his 22-minute heat against Chris Ward (USA), Andrew King (Australia), and Kawika Stillwell (Hawaii). Most people on the beach didn't even realize that anything dramatic had even occurred. Water photographer Neal Miyake was the first to Redman, closely followed by the event Water Patrol officers on a nearby jet-ski.
"He didn't look like he knew what was going on," said Miyake. "I told him it didn't look too bad, but I only saw the scrape above his eye. I didn't know there was a worse injury on the side of his head. Then the water patrol picked him up."
In fact, in only took about a minute for Redman to be picked up and dropped to shore.
"The alertness of the water patrol and their ability to respond to any kind of water safety situation like this was vital," said contest director Reid Inouye. "Thanks to water patrol Abe Lerner and Kai Garcia, and cameraman Neal Miyake, it took less than a minute to get him to the beach. These guys have done water patrol all over the world for world class events, but the Pipeline is still the Pipeline and during the low tide like we had this-morning, it can still be dangerous. But their quick response and medical attention was unlike anything you'd find anywhere. They got him Daniel up to the (Ehukai Beach) park and then the paramedics were there to take over."
For more information:
Jodi Young
Tel: 1-808-258-8533