Lincoln with Life Flight crew
“What stood out with Lincoln was he was wearing bright red shoes. Any indicator like that, something that’s not the right colour or not the right shape in the water, that’s what we look for.”
11-year-old Lincoln was playing in knee-deep water off the Wainuiomata coast when he stepped into a hole and was swept off his feet by a wave.
A rip carried Lincoln further out to sea. “I was just trying to keep my head up, I knew not to fight the rip.” He’d done enough to keep himself alive and remembers the moment the helicopter came overhead. “I heard the helicopter... I saw it was red and I knew it was a rescue helicopter. I knew they’d found me.”
Lincoln was winched from the sea, hypothermic and semi-conscious. Hannah Latta was the Intensive Care Paramedic on the scene, “If he’d been in there 30 seconds to a minute longer, he would have been dead.”