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Unidentified Caucasian Male (Late 40's) Nearly Drowns At Central Beach

At about 6:20 pm, I was having fun in the waves at Coronado's Central Beach. At the same time a man was getting dragged out of the water by four people, three males and one female. I ran out of the water to observe, rather than help, because three other females had already ran up to help perform CPR.

They started performing CPR, trying to get him conscious and breathing, from what I could tell. The four original people who dragged him out helped drag him further up the beach as the tide reached them. They did this once more, getting him onto the dry sand finally.

I wondered, as many others did, why no lifeguards had yet appeared. There were plenty of people waving their arms and shouting at this point, a few running all the way to the lifeguard tower. It took three to four minutes, after the man was pulled out of the water, to see a single lifeguard run out. That lifeguard quickly took over CPR. Two more lifeguards joined him as a couple more minutes passed. There was total of five lifeguards and three civilians by the time the lifeguard's car arrived.

The lifeguard's car brought out what I believe was a drowning kit; something to drag out the water from his lungs and another object I could not identify.

It was now about 6:30 pm and the paramedics had arrived. A woman and daughter brought his belongings over to them, recognizing the man who had sat next to them. He had come alone, according to the two. From there a paramedic searched his belongings, finding a cellphone and a set of keys in his pants' pockets.

The man at this point was said to have a "strong pulse" and was still breathing, but with difficulty. This continued for several minutes until they got him onto a police truck at about 6:40 pm. They drove him to the ambulance, parked on Ocean. He was still alive, the paramedics taking him to Sharp Coronado Hospital when I left at 6:47 pm.

I am very glad this man is alive and breathing. I don't have pictures of this event, but I assume they will be popping up soon.

The issue most of the witnesses, including me, have with this event is why weren't the lifeguards out sooner? Just over a week ago UT San Diego reported that a Coronado lifeguard was distracted for more that an hour and a half, talking to civilians. Did a similar distraction occur today? Was this a normal or abnormal reaction time? How can we increase reaction time of our lifeguards during an event like this?

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Comment by Mookie Blaylock on August 12, 2012 at 12:06am: Thanks to the public and lifeguards reactions this man had a chance to survive. And thanks for the dozens of rescues you made today, on the heels of a terribly false article by the UT last week, it seems that many are ready to label you as something you are not.

Comment by Peter L. Fagan on August 12, 2012 at 11:20am: I believe there was another serious incident later that day (last night) at around 9 pm at north beach. I don't have any details but think it was a young lady caught in a riptide after dark. Lots of police and fire department activity surrounding this incident.

Comment by Kelley Kraft Casey on August 12, 2012 at 2:58pm: WIth all the beach traffic we've had this summer, especially this weekend, the lifeguards are *extremely* busy patrolling the beach. Yesterday we had big surf and dangerous rip currents. I observed nothing but diligence (including a rescue), from the lifeguards, and I believe they're doing their best to keep us safe under trying circumstances.

Comment by Kelley Kraft Casey on August 12, 2012 at 3:09pm: That UT "article" was a joke. It was a bunch of photos taken within about a minute, given that the same people are in the background of most of the photos. Did the UT check any sources or facts before deciding that it was newsworthy?

Comment by Gary Altstadt (KK6AGR) on August 17, 2012 at 7:07pm: I agree that we have outstanding lifeguards in Coronado.

Instead of allowing this issue to go unanswered, I would like the City to respond to answer the question whether the response time to this crisis was typical. I believe to squelch any doubt that may have been raised by the irresponsible UT article, the metrics for the average rescues, response time, number of lifeguards on duty would be helpful. Perhaps we are shorthanded and the City needs reallocate budget dollars to increase lifeguard FTE's during the busy summer months or maybe the Coronado beaches over-staffed and should look at right-sizing the staff based on the data.

Thanks again to all of Coronado's protective and rescue agencies!

Comment by Ashley Jenkins on August 19, 2012 at 5:30pm: What wasn't included in that UT article was a photo of the water and beach in front of that lifeguards tower. There would have been a story if there were people in the water however being that the Shores are in the background of that photo and knowing Coronado lifeguards, the water is often completely mellow there and most people swim north of there.