Seven-year-old Michael Wong of Lautoka happily ate his meal in hospital after being rescued from drowning by a skin diver at Plantation Island holiday resort.
This near-tragedy was reported in The Fiji Times on Wednesday, November 16, 1977.
Michael, son of Lautoka businessman, Peter Wong, would have died had Jim Stewart, a member of the British Sub-Aqua Club (Fiji) and his wife not been snorkelling at the resort at the time the incident happened.
Jenny Stewart gave the alert after she saw the boy’s body lying on coral about 6ft below her in the water.
Her husband pulled the boy ashore and applied mouth-to-mouth respiration.
Within a minute or so the boy gulped air and a nursing sister stationed at the resort was able to take over, inducing him to vomit up the water he had taken in and which would have drowned him.
He was rushed to Lautoka by speedboat and admitted to Lautoka Hospital where he was later well on the way to full recovery.
Michael and his brother Albert were playing in the water and jumping off boats when the drowning incident happened.
