That could have ended badly. But four people from Bad Gastein were there when a man could no longer save himself from an ice-cold stream.
This is what effective help looks like. At the end of February, four passers-by from Bad Gastein determinedly provided first aid to a severely hypothermic man. The quartet was out and about in the Kötschachtal district of Bad Gastein; it had snowed heavily the day before. Suddenly Kathrin Oberbichler, her mother Elfi Oberbichler, Albert Pichler and Ludwig Schweiger heard cries for help. They discovered a helpless accident victim. The young man, a stranger to the area, had apparently slipped over a slope into an icy stream. “We saw him lying there and then we just reacted,” remembers Elfi Oberbichler. “We heard the cries for help and immediately ran,” adds her daughter Kathrin. The man was allowed to warm up in someone else’s car. The four locals pulled him out of the ditch and called the Red Cross. They cared for him until Red Cross paramedics arrived. They then wrapped him in several emergency blankets and put him in Ludwig Schweiger’s car to keep him warm. The young man, who was unfamiliar with the area, was taken to Schwarzach Hospital after being treated by the Red Cross. Through their exemplary and courageous intervention, the Pongau first aiders saved the life of the accident victim.
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