Swimmer Drowns In Gulf Islands National Seashore Rip Current

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Tuesday, Apr 28, 2009
Park lifeguards were on the stand at Johnson Beach on Perdido Key on the afternoon of April 24th when they received a report of two people in trouble in the ocean about 300 yards up the beach, outside of the guarded area. The lifeguards began a staggered response in order to also maintain coverage of the lifeguarded beach. The first lifeguard responded by ATV. When he arrived on scene, he saw a 20-year-old woman about 25 to 30 yards from shore on a sandbar. He swam out to her and found that a second person had been pulled out to sea by a strong rip current at that location. The guard determined that the woman was not in immediate danger and told her to stay put while he swam further out from shore and looked for him. About 20 yards out, the guard found a very heavyset 59-year-old man floating face down in the water. He flipped the man over and began pulling him to shore. At about this time, a second guard who’d sprinted up the beach arrived on scene. He found that the woman had left the safety of the sandbar, that she was trying to get back to the beach on her own, and that she’d gotten caught in a rip current and was floundering in water over her head. He swam out to her, pulled her to shore, then swam back out to assist the first guard in the physically challenging effort of getting the man back to the beach. As they were pulling him on shore, a third lifeguard, a paramedic ranger, and an Escambia County FD unit all arrived. Basic and advanced life measures, including CPR, were begun. Escambia EMS arrived and transported the man to a medevac helicopter. He was flown to Baptist Hospital, where medical personnel worked on him for about 20 minutes before declaring him dead. The woman was checked at the scene and found to be okay. Paramedic/ranger Leslie Wells is leading the investigation. Yellow cautionary surf flags were posted at Perdido Key at the time due to rip current conditions. Due to these conditions, lifeguards made several other rescues over the course of the weekend.