A MAN who was dramatically rescued after being swept into the mouth of a river has died in hospital.

The 64-year-old victim, who was named as Keith Ellerby, of Rawcliffe, York, was airlifted to The James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough, after being pulled from the water at the mouth of the River Tees, near Redcar.

Mr Ellerby worked for the York Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust as food safety and quality manager.

He had been fishing at South Gare when he was washed into the water at about 3.45pm on Monday.

Despite the efforts of RNLI volunteers, who performed cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on the fisherman before he was flown to hospital, he did not survive after his ordeal in the water.

A friend, who was also hit by the wave but managed to stay on the gare, is believed to have alerted the coastguard.

A police helicopter, which happened to be in the area, hovered above the man to help a lifeboat crew locate him.

Volunteer crews had to battle 10ft swells before they were able to pull him out of the water.

An RAF Sea King helicopter, which had been dispatched to the incident, winched Mr Ellerby from the boat before flying him to hospital.

Dave Cocks, of the RNLI at Redcar, said: “Once our lifeboat was able to locate the man, the helmsman did a terrific job manoeuvring the vessel in 10ft seas so that the crew could snatch the man into the lifeboat. Once he was aboard, the crew immediately started administering CPR while the lifeboat was taken into more sheltered water inside the mouth of the River Tees.”

A crew member from the Hartlepool inshore lifeboat was transferred to the Redcar lifeboat to help with the resuscitation efforts while the lifeboat went to the entrance of Tees dock. Mr Cocks added: “This was an extremely difficult rescue for the RNLI volunteers.

“There were very large waves breaking onto the sea wall, and the man was very close in. I’m very proud of the way the crews from Redcar and Hartlepool worked together.”

Yesterday, Cleveland Police confirmed that he had died in hospital.

Patrick Crowley, the chief executive of York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We were shocked to hear the news of Keith’s death. Keith was approaching 50 years’ service in the NHS and his colleagues were looking forward to celebrating this landmark with him.

“My sympathy is, of course, with his family and with his colleagues and friends at the hospital, who will miss him terribly.”

The incident came just hours before flood warnings were put in place along the east coast due to high winds and heavy rain.

The warnings, for Scarborough and Bridlington, were later cancelled by the Environment Agency.