RescueVoices

New Life Jacket Law: Under the age of 13 MUST wear one

2011-07-02T14:57:00.000-07:00

Please see this link to the CA Department of Boating and Waterways regarding new life jacket laws, how to buy one, and when to use it.

http://dbw.ca.gov/BoaterInfo/LifeJacketInfo.aspx

CALIFORNIA BOATING FATALITIES AND WATER RESCUES ON A RISE

2011-07-02T14:47:00.000-07:00

Contact: Gloria Sandoval (916) 263-0788

June 29, 2011

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - As predicted by the Department of Boating Waterways (DBW), this summer is shaping up to be a dangerous one for water enthusiasts, particularly for rivers. More boaters have died in swift water river accidents in the first six months of 2011 than any other comparable period on record.

With water temperatures being extremely cold, outdoor enthusiasts can become incapacitated in just 10 minutes, to the point that the muscles in their limbs stop working and they will no longer be able to swim or rescue themselves.

“Outdoor enthusiasts in, on and around the water must use caution and be prepared,” stated DBW’s Acting Director Lucia Becerra. “Many rivers will be running faster and higher this 4th of July weekend than in the past years. Water levels in lakes will also be higher, masking underwater hazards that were exposed in previous years.”

The biggest safety concern now is the use of flotation devices such as lightweight rafts which may be designed for swimming pools or calm waters. These flotation devices are dangerous. They can easily lose air or be punctured by debris or tree branches. Use of these types of devices is strongly discouraged during this period of high, swift and cold water conditions.

Knowing what to do in case of a water immersion, understanding the effects of cold water and wearing a life jacket are critical in improving chances of survival. Below are some tips that water enthusiasts should follow to improve their chances of survival:

Know the law

A life jacket must be carried for each person on board a boat.
Every child under 13 must wear a life jacket when on a boat.
Every person on board a personal watercraft (popularly known as jet skis) and any person being towed behind a vessel must wear a life jacket.
All life jackets must be Coast Guard-approved.
It is against the law to operate a boat or water ski with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.08 percent or more. You can be arrested even when your BAC is less than 0.08 percent if conditions are deemed to be unsafe.

Plan ahead

Become knowledgeable about local conditions such as currents, rapids, flow levels, weather, and hazards, including low-head dams and unrunnable rapids.
Make sure you have the required equipment on your vessel.
File a float plan. The chances of successfully locating an overdue boat are much greater if rescue agencies have certain facts about the boat trip.
Swift water information and guides for some of California’s rivers are available on DBW’s Web site.

Know the water

The water may look calm on the top, but river currents are usually strong beneath the water’s surface that can carry you away from your safety zone.
Many unseen obstacles can be lurking below the water’s surface. Swift water can make these obstacles even more treacherous.
An unknown rapid should never be run without first scouting it thoroughly from shore. If in doubt, carry watercraft or cargo over land to avoid river obstacles or hazards.
Swimming in open water is more difficult than in a swimming pool – people tire more quickly and can get into trouble.

Know what to do in case of a water immersion

Swift water: If you do end up in the river, point your feet downstream. This helps your legs to come in contact with floating debris or rocks first instead of your head. Stay calm and try to make your way to the shore while floating. Be wary of branches in the river. It may be tempting to reach for a branch, but you can become entangled in the branches and drown. Look for a clear place to get to shore.
Calm water: If your boat capsizes and you are in cold water, get as far out of the water as possible by climbing onto any floating object, such a boat’s hull. This may help prevent heat loss from your body, especially if the temperature is warm and the winds are calm. If you cannot get out of the water, keep your head out of the water to limit heat loss. Curl into a ball or huddle with other passengers and restrict movement of arms and legs to further help limit heat loss.
Hypothermia: Hypothermia in the early stages can easily be reversed by vigorously exercising to generate body heat and limiting exposure to further cold. High energy foods and warm liquids also help (no caffeine or alcohol). Except in mild cases, seek medical help as improper rewarming can cause complications or even death.

Parental Supervision

Actively supervise children in and around open bodies of water, giving them your undivided attention.
Appoint a designated “water watcher”, taking turns with other adults.
Teach children that swimming in open water is not the same as swimming in a pool. They need to be aware of uneven surfaces, river currents, ocean undertow and changing weather.

For more information on boating and water safety, please visit www.BoatSmarter.com.

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The Department of Boating and Waterways enhances public access to California’s waterways and promotes on-the-water safety through programs funded by vessel registration fees, boating fuel tax dollars and boating facility construction loan payments.

Industrial Designers Develop Harness To Provide Spine Support During Water Rescues

2008-12-09T14:44:00.000-08:00

July 1, 2008 — Industrial designers created a floating support brace from foam and other materials. It protects the spine from damage during swiftwater rescues. The harness corrects itself if it turns upside down in the water, and includes no metal.

See also:

Health & Medicine

Matter & Energy

Reference

Each year, there are over 7,000 drowning deaths, many in rough, choppy waters of rivers and oceans. But rescue efforts in swift water are among the most difficult for emergency teams. Now, a new rescue device makes saving lives easier.

The water's edge may seem peaceful and serene, but to emergency workers, a fast moving river can be deadly.

"We had a group of kids that decided they were going to help with the recovery effort that we were doing and ended up being victims themselves," Wayne Akers EMT and recovery diver for Swift Water Rescue, told Ivanhoe.

Rescue efforts in swift water can be difficult. Now, industrial design students from Virginia Tech have created a water rescue harness. It was a class project, that's ready for a real rescue.

"The goal of this device is to make it easier and safer to rescue someone in the water with a spinal injury," Liz Varnerin, industrial design student at Virginia Tech, told Ivanhoe.

It's called hydro-spine, and it's being tested today by professionals. It provides better spine support to help prevent injuries, and better flotation to guard against water hazards.

"The biggest thing we did was provide flotation, so if the unconscious person should become face down in the water, it will flip them over and keep them in the correct position in the water," said Varnerin.

It has handles for pulling and lifting, holes allow access to take patient's vital signs, four buckles fasten all at once, reducing the time it takes to secure a victim, and a stiff head support reduces the need for a neck brace. It also travels straight to the hospital.

"It's an all no metal design so the patient can stay in it in the hospital and go thru x-rays," said Varnerin. The device received rave reviews from rescuers.

"This has been one of the most gratifying projects I've ever worked on in school," Brian Sandifer, industrial design student at Virginia Tech, told Ivanhoe.

An A+ assignment with a huge reward.

HYDROSPINE: The Hydrospine is a rigid frame designed for use in water rescue situations, especially in fast-moving rivers. It is made from structural foam, a neoprene liner, nylon strops, buoyant buckles, and buoyant foam. It is intended to replace the metal framed harnesses currently used by rescue workers to stabilize accident victims with possible spinal injuries. The metal-free frame allows doctors to perform MRI and other scans at the hospital without removing the patient from the protection of the brace. The brace is designed to right itself if tipped upside down in the water, protecting the victim from drowning.

THE SPINE: The back is made up of bones, muscles and other tissues that compose the body's trunk, from the neck to the pelvis. The spinal column is the centerpiece. It supports the upper body's weight and houses the spinal cord, which carries the signals that control movement and convey sensations. The spinal column is made up of more than 30 bones, called vertebrae, stacked on top of one another. Each contains a round hole that creates a channel. Small nerves, called roots, enter and emerge from the spinal cord through spaces between the vertebrae. The spaces are protected by round, spongy pads of cartilage called intervertebral discs; these enable some flexibility in the lower back and serve as shock absorbers to cushion the bones as the body moves. The entire network is held in place by bands of tissue called ligaments and tendons. Damage to these disks and the spinal cord can occur because of impacts like car accidents, disease, or over time as a result of general wear and tear.

Everyday Heroes - margeaux leakas and Lacey Flanigan

2008-07-11T17:01:00.000-07:00

Joy ride turns to rescue

When Margeaux Leakas, 16, of Dayton, Ohio, and her friend Lacey Flanigan (left), 17, of St. Louis, Mo. decided to meet their friend and go for a ride in Flanigan’s jet-ski, they saw something that didn’t look right. Their joy ride quickly turned to a rescue.

By A.J. Hoffman Courier Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 8, 2008 11:35 PM EDT When they saw a dinghy circling around in the middle of the lake with no one in the driver’s seat, they knew there was something wrong.

When Margeaux Leakas, 16, of Dayton, Ohio, and her friend Lacey Flanigan, 17, of St. Louis, Mo. decided to meet their friend and go for a ride in Flanigan’s jet-ski, they saw something that didn’t look right.

“People were just standing on their docks, pointing to the water. All those people had bigger boats or yachts, so they couldn’t really do anything,” said Flanigan “I mean, by the time they would have gotten themselves untied and started up, it would have been too late. So, we just booked it over there.”

What the people on the dock saw was a drowning man.

“We could see a man in a bright blue shirt from where we were, and he was just throwing his arms around everywhere,” said Leakas.

The man in distress, Robert Leitz, 62, of Sister Bay, Wisc., was not wearing a life-jacket.

“I figured it wasn’t going to be a very long trip, and I could see my friend’s boat from where I was,” he said. “I was going to visit a friend of mine on the other side of the lake, so I kind of had my guard down.”

According to Leitz, he was only about 100 yards off of the municipal dock when he took the throttle of the boat and throttled up.

“All of a sudden, the boat jumped out from under me,” he said.

Leitz, who claims to be a pretty good swimmer, and has been involved with boating for over 30 years, said he just made a stupid mistake.

“My first instinct was to try to catch up to the dinghy because at the time it was just idling away from me,” he said. “The water was so cold though and I was losing strength as I was trying to catch up to it.”

Leitz said someone told him the water was 52 degrees when he fell in. Anything less than 70 degrees can induce hypothermia.

“I was in the water for about four or five minutes. If those girls hadn’t gotten to me in time, I think I would have lost consciousness,” said Leitz.

Leitz’s only hope was the two girls on the jet-ski who were still out of reach at that point.

As he was fighting to keep his head above water, the dinghy was coming back at him.

“I knew there was nothing I could do, so I lifted my arm up to try to knock the boat out of the way,” Leitz said. “The next thing I knew, I was looking at the bottom of the dinghy.”

The propellor of the dinghy sliced his ear and a part of his shoulder, leaving him in need of approximately seven stitches in his ear.

When the girls got to the scene, they saw Leitz bleeding and flailing around in the water.

One of the girls threw him her life-jacket but Leitz didn’t respond to it. So, Leakas decided to jump in the water and save him herself.

Flanigan was not only steering the jet-ski, but she was tied to it as well, so this left Leakas to saving the man’s life.

The 135 pound Leakas was somehow able to swim the 250 to 300 pound Leitz to safety by getting him to a nearby boat that was on its way.

“There was a family on that boat, and the father kind of helped me lift him up onto their boat,” Leakas said. “From there, the family covered the man’s face with a towel because that’s where the bleeding was coming from; then they headed to Ward’s to get the man to a hospital.”

After Leakas got back on the jet-ski, the girls located the out-of-control dinghy. Flanigan jumped on the small boat, which had run into a moored sailboat, and hit the killswitch.

Later in the day, the girls met the man they saved, and his wife, at the hospital.

“Both he and his wife gave us a great big hug and they just kept saying ‘thank you, thank you, thank you.’ They were incredibly grateful towards us,” Flanigan said. “It’s so weird: Last summer, I rode the jet-ski around and used it for fun all season long; This year, I used it to save somebody’s life.”

Leakas said the event was all a blur.

“I had never taken any life-saving classes before,” she said. “The water was freezing, and I don’t even know how I was able to do it. I can hardly remember how I swam with him.”

Leakas added, “He was moving around everywhere and I think I just put my arm around his chest or over his shoulder to get him over to that family’s boat.”

Ann Denison, Leakas’ grandmother, was the first to receive the girl following her heroic action.

“She just came home to me and didn’t say anything. She was just shaking,” Denison said. “When I asked her what was wrong, she said, ‘I just saved a man’s life.’ You could tell she was in shock.”

She added, “I told her, ‘you should feel lucky, not everyone gets the chance to save somebody’s life.’”

Both of the girls work as camp counselors at the Belvedere, where they’ll be living for the summer.

“They really are very amazing girls,” Denison said. “They did the right thing and I’m very proud of them.”

RescueVoices.com - Everyday Heroes - Xavier Escobar

2008-05-29T16:37:00.000-07:00

Capsized boat 'Good Samaritan' speaks

Reported by: Tim Malloy
Email: tmalloy@wptv.com
Photographer: Blain Logan
Last Update: 5/28 7:01 am

Click on the video plater to the right to watch the story

BOCA RATON, FL -- "I wasn't going out, it was too rough"

Dr. Xavier Escobar grew up surfing off the Boca jetty. His decision to take out a friend's Sea Doo on Memorial Day at six in the evening was on impulse.

When he swung out of the channel into the open sea, he heard screams. "They were in the middle of the break, with white water all around them."

Escobar found himself in the middle of a frantic fight for life. Six people were thrashing in the Atlantic, their boat overturned. They were drowning in a rip tide a hundred yards offshore.

Escobar swung the Sea Doo around and plucked a young boy who was gripping the bow of the violently heaving boat. "I went over to pick him up. He didn't respond. I yelled at him and pulled him in. He said his family was out there."

By then the Coast Guard and Boca's Marine unit were circling the victims and pulling them from the water. Escobar went back out. "They looked at us like we were angels,” says Escobar.

All survived. Two were hospitalized. http://www.wptv.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=2af98a2e-6f13-4071-a4e8-00852e111468

RescueVoices.com - Getting Recognized

2008-05-28T12:20:00.001-07:00

With large thanks to Shawn Alladio of K38 Rescue, RescueVoices.com is getting some excellent exposure.

We have been on Surfersvillage.com, GlobalSurfNews.com, PWCToday.com and more!

Rescuers, keep your stories coming!

Everyday Heroes - Paul Patterson and Anthony Navi

2008-05-28T10:16:00.000-07:00

Sea cadet's daring rescue saves man's life

Life-savers .... Paul Patterson and Anthony Navi.

27 May 2008

By Andy Hughes

TWO sea cadets were praised today after their heroic actions saved the life of a man who had who fallen into the Tyne.

Commanding officer Paul Patterson was on board Hebburn Sea Cadet's boat TS Kelly when he spotted the man falling into choppy waters near the cadets' building in Prince Consort Road Industrial Estate at about 5pm on Sunday.

Mr Patterson immediately alerted cadet Anthony Navi, who was stationed in a safety boat nearby in case of an emergency.

The 22-year-old hurtled full speed towards the TS Kelly boat where Mr Patterson, 47, leapt aboard as the safety boat soared past at 25mph.

After locating the struggling 38-year-old man, who was floating down the river, the two cadets managed to pull him out of the Tyne and on to their boat where they gave him first aid treatment. He was then taken to shore where the paramedics were waiting for him.

The pair have been hailed "heroes" by their colleagues and the emergency services.

Neighbourhood Sergeant Ed Hedley, of South Tyneside Area Command, said:
"The actions of the two men were very praiseworthy."

But Mr Patterson, from Chester-le-Street, played down his role, saying: "We were only doing our job."

He added: "We're trained to rescue people like that all the time and you just switch on when you have to.

"You expect other cadets falling into the water, but not just a member of the public.

"He was really struggling and he seemed unconscious, so when we pulled him out he was just dead weight."

The local man, who is thought to have been out with friends by the riverside when he fell, suffered no injuries but was taken to South Tyneside District Hospital as a precaution. Police and fire services also attended the scene.

Mr Navi, from Hebburn, said: "I heard somebody shouting for help, then I saw Paul waving me to come over, so I went full speed towards him and he just leapt on from one boat to another – it was unbelievable.

"Then we went straight to the man in the water and managed to fetch him out. It's lucky no one was seriously hurt. It could have turned out really bad."

Chief petty officer Sheila Harte said: "Paul was absolutely fantastic. The way he dived on to a moving boat in those choppy waters was amazing, it's unheard of.

"He had no fears about jumping on the boat. The emergency services were here very quickly but he had been rescued by that point."

A spokeswoman for Humber Coastguard said: "We had a call just after 5pm from a gentleman reporting somebody had fallen into the Tyne.

"We launched the Tynemouth inshore lifeboat and the Sunderland coastguard team also went to assist.

"But another boat in the area managed to help the gentleman out of the water and he was taken to hospital by ambulance."

Last Updated: 27 May 2008 5:25 PM
Source: Shields Gazette
Location: South Shields

Everyday Heroes - 2-year-old Saved After 15 Minutes in 42 Degree Water

2008-05-28T09:32:00.000-07:00

Frigid water may have saved boy, experts say

2-year-old who still clings to life after falling in lake might have gone into a form of 'mini-hibernation'

By Jeremy Manier and James Janega |Tribune reporters

10:33 PM CDT, April 21, 2008

The odds of survival seemed thin Friday for a 2-year-old boy who fell into the 42-degree waters of Lake Michigan and was submerged for at least 15 minutes before divers retrieved him and took him to a hospital.

Yet the child's young age and the frigidity of the water may have saved him from drowning, medical experts said. The boy remained in critical condition Monday at Children's Memorial Hospital, though his family requested the hospital not release more details about him, including his name.

Research into similar incidents in the last three decades has shown that children can survive submersion in cold water for up to 66 minutes in one extreme case. One reason may be their tendency to respond to such submersion with what amounts to a form of mini-hibernation.

In what some experts call the "diving response," breathing stops, the heart beats more slowly and the body diverts blood from the extremities to the heart, brain and other organs where it's needed most. That reflex may help children more because their internal temperature can drop faster than an adult's—a cue for their metabolism to slow down.

"If this were you or me, they'd be putting flowers on our tombstone right now," said Robert Pozos, a professor of biology at San Diego State University who has researched how people survive such extreme cases of hypothermia in water.

A fast response from the Chicago Fire Department rescue crew may have helped the boy survive. A helicopter with two divers aboard happened to be minutes away at Midway Airport when they heard the wind had blown a boy into the lake. Officials said the helicopter reached the scene in four minutes, shortly before another team of department divers and a paramedic crew arrived.

The first diver into the harbor, Brian Otto, said he spotted the boy's hair waving in dark water beside him within three minutes after he dropped from the helicopter. When divers handed the toddler, still strapped into a jogging stroller, to paramedics on the ledge above, the boy's body was pale and ice cold.

Drowning is a leading cause of accidental death among children, and most cases of prolonged submersion end in death. But being submerged in cold water can elicit two very different responses, which can affect whether the person survives.

One is the cold shock response, which many people have instinctively as soon as they feel icy water on their face. The victim gasps, then hyperventilates, leading to increases in heart rate and blood pressure.

"The heart is working hard and pretty soon you tire yourself out, and you're more likely to drown," said Dr. Dave Beiser, an emergency physician at the University of Chicago Medical Center.

The other reaction is the diving response, so named because it resembles some of what happens to mammals such as whales and dolphins when they swim for long distances underwater.

But the diving response alone is not enough to ensure survival, Pozos said; it must be accompanied by a drop in internal temperature. A fast drop is possible in children because they have a higher ratio of surface area to weight, meaning cold water cools the body more quickly than it would for an adult.

Pozos also believes many children are aided by swallowing or breathing in cold water, which helps cool their internal organs and slows their metabolism.

Once a child gets to a hospital, doctors must be careful not to attempt rapid warming, said Dr. Russ Horowitz, an attending physician in the emergency department of Children's Memorial, who was not involved in the 2-year-old boy's care.

"We have to bring them up nice and slow," Horowitz said.

Friday's frightening scene brought up tense memories for Terrence Tontlewicz, whose son Jimmy, now 28, fell though the ice into Lake Michigan in 1984.

"God, it's pretty much the same thing that happened to us," said Tontlewicz, who now lives in Utah and has not seen his son or ex-wife in years. News reports a decade after the accident said Jimmy attended a school for disabled children, was active in the Special Olympics and lived an otherwise normal teenage life.

About one-third of children who endure cold-water submersion suffer long-term neurological damage, Horowitz said. The chances for recovery are relatively good for children because their brains are still growing and retain much of the plasticity that people lose as they grow older.

Research also suggests that children stand a better chance of survival if they fall into very cold water—less than 50 degrees Fahrenheit or so. Warmer water will not trigger the diving response or lead to a slower metabolism.

For most children, the limit of survival after submersion in warm water is about 15 minutes.

But in the most extreme case of cold water survival ever recorded, a Salt Lake City toddler lived after being submerged in cold water for 66 minutes in 1986. That girl, Michelle Funk, appeared blue and lifeless after being pulled from an icy creek, and her internal temperature was as low as 66 degrees.

But after hours of the hospital team administering warm fluids and warmed air and putting her on a heart-lung bypass machine, the girl revived. Bit by bit, she regained her sight, her speech and fine motor control. By the time the Utah doctors published a medical journal article on the case in 1988, the girl had essentially returned to normal.

jmanier@tribune.com

jjanega@tribune.com

Every Day Heroes - Dolphins

2008-05-28T09:21:00.000-07:00

Dolphins save surfer from becoming shark’s bait

A pod of bottlenose dolphins helped protect the severely injured boarder

By Mike Celizic

TODAYShow.com contributor

updated 6:57 a.m. PT, Thurs., Nov. 8, 2007

Surfer Todd Endris needed a miracle. The shark — a monster great white that came out of nowhere — had hit him three times, peeling the skin off his back and mauling his right leg to the bone.

That’s when a pod of bottlenose dolphins intervened, forming a protective ring around Endris, allowing him to get to shore, where quick first aid provided by a friend saved his life.

“Truly a miracle,” Endris told TODAY’s Natalie Morales on Thursday.

The attack occurred on Tuesday, Aug. 28, just before 11 a.m. at Marina State Park off Monterey, Calif., where the 24-year-old owner of Monterey Aquarium Services had gone with friends for a day of the sport they love. Nearly four months later, Endris, who is still undergoing physical therapy to repair muscle damage suffered during the attack, is back in the water and on his board in the same spot where he almost lost his life.

“[It] came out of nowhere. There’s no warning at all.

TODAY

Todd Endris

Maybe I saw him a quarter second before it hit me. But no warning. It was just a giant shark,” Endris said. “It just shows you what a perfect predator they really are.”

The shark, estimated at 12 to 15 feet long, hit him first as Endris was sitting on his surfboard, but couldn’t get its monster jaws around both surfer and surfboard. “The second time, he came down and clamped on my torso — sandwiched my board and my torso in his mouth,” Endris said.

That attack shredded his back, literally peeling the skin back, he said, “like a banana peel.” But because Endris’ stomach was pressed to the surfboard, his intestines and internal organs were protected.

The third time, the shark tried to swallow Endris’ right leg, and he said that was actually a good thing, because the shark’s grip anchored him while he kicked the beast in the head and snout with his left leg until it let go.

The dolphins, which had been cavorting in the surf all along, showed up then. They circled him, keeping the shark at bay, and enabled Endris to get back on his board and catch a wave to the shore.

Our finned friends
No one knows why dolphins protect humans, but stories of the marine mammals rescuing humans go back to ancient Greece, according to the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society.

A year ago in New Zealand, the group reports, four lifeguards were saved from sharks in the same way Endris was — by dolphins forming a protective ring.

Though horribly wounded, Endris said he didn’t think he was going to die. “Actually, it never crossed my mind,” he told Morales.

It did, though, cross the minds of others on the beach, including some lifeguards who told his friend, Brian Simpson, that Endris wasn’t going to make it.

Simpson is an X-ray technician in a hospital trauma center, and he’d seen badly injured people before. He had seen Endris coming in and knew he was hurt.

“I was expecting him to have leg injuries,” he told Morales. “It was a lot worse than I was expecting.”

Blood was pumping out of the leg, which had been bitten to the bone, and Endris, who lost half his blood, was ashen white. To stop the blood loss, Simpson used his surf leash as a tourniquet, which probably saved his life.

“Thanks to this guy,” Endris said, referring to Simpson, who sat next to him in the TODAY studio, “once I got to the beach, he was calming me down and keeping me from losing more blood by telling me to slow my breathing and really just be calm. They wouldn’t let me look at my wounds at all, which really helped.

A medivac helicopter took him to a hospital, where a surgeon had to first figure out what went where before putting him back together.

“It was like putting together a jigsaw puzzle,” Endris said.

Six weeks later, he was well enough to go surfing again, and the place he went was back to Marina State Park. It wasn’t easy to go back in the water.

“You really have to face your fears,” he told Morales. “I’m a surfer at heart, and that’s not something I can give up real easily. It was hard. But it was something you have to do.”

The shark went on its way, protected inside the waters of the park, which is a marine wildlife refuge. Endris wouldn’t want it any other way.

“I wouldn’t want to go after the shark anyway,” he said. “We’re in his realm, not the other way around.”

Rescue Voices - Everyday Heroes - May 26, 2008

2008-05-26T23:32:00.000-07:00

May 26, 2008, 10:19PM
Houston man saves nephew, but drowns in Brazos River

A Houston man drowned in the swift current of the Brazos River on Sunday after saving his 9-year-old nephew, who was pulled to safety by a stranger, authorities said.

Francisco Garcia, 41, was in the water at Bryan Beach, near the mouth of the river, with his nephew on Sunday about 3:50 p.m. when the boy started to lose footing, said Freeport Police Department Sgt. Juanita Cardozo. She said Garcia also started to struggle in the undercurrent, and held his nephew above water.

On shore, Garcia's wife and the boy's father — and their extended families — called for help as it became clear they were drowning, Cardozo said. A "Good Samaritan" on a jet ski was able to take the boy from the uncle and bring him to shore, said U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Renee C. Aiello.

The uncle disappeared under the water. His body was recovered at 6:20 p.m.

Cardozo said Garcia's extended family had made an outing to the beach every year for the past six years.

Boating Safely Continues Beyond May 23rd

2008-05-23T13:44:00.000-07:00

National Safe Boating Week officially ends today, May 23, 2008. However, this does not mean it isn't just as important to use caution when boating every day.

This Memorial Day make it a choice of yours to wear your personal flotation device (PFD), also knows as life jacket, every minute you are on the water. The safest driver is a defensive one. Most fatal boating accidents happen because people do not wear their PFD.

Don't let this be you.

To read more about fatal accidents told first hand by rescuers, click here.

Be safe out there. To coin a phrase from Shawn Alladio, world renowned personal watercraft instructor, "The life you save may be your own."

Rescue Heroes Need Thanks

2008-01-21T16:48:00.000-08:00

You're enjoying a day at the beach when all of a sudden a rip tide takes you farther out than you have been before. Your instinct is to swim as hard as you can straight back to shore. Not long after you begin your frantic stroking, someone meets you at your spot, and calmly tells you to relax for a minute and follow their lead. The instruct you to swim calmly parallel to the shore. Not only do you catch your breath, but you also realize that you are starting to go somewhere. A short time later, you are swimming calmly, side by side with this angel, back into the safety of shore. You get there, stand up, shake off the fear..and walk away.
You don't say thank you.
You don't appreciate the life-saving lesson they taught you.
You don't acknowledge that their skill and willingness to care about you just saved your life.

It's hard to imagine, but there are plenty more stories where this came from! Go to www.rescuevoices.com to hear more!