Swimmer critical after near drowning (with photo)

A picturesque spring break afternoon took a tragic turn Thursday behind the Holiday Inn in Destin.

At about 12:35 p.m., lifeguards from the Destin Beach Safety Patrol stationed behind the hotel noticed two swimmers in distress about 30 to 40 yards out in the Gulf of Mexico on a yellow flag day. The lifeguards went in after them.

One of the swimmers emerged from the Gulf shaken but seemingly unharmed — the other did not.

With nearly 400 spring breakers standing on the beach and concerned vacationers looking out into the Gulf from elevated condo and hotel balconies, lifeguards, firefighters and EMTs scanned the waters. Floating debris and birds were mistaken for the missing swimmer more than once as the Coast Guard and Destin Fire Control District combed the waters for signs of life.

“Looking for floating bodies is just — it’s awful,” said Joe D’Agostino, chief of the Destin Beach Safety Patrol. Earlier this month, in anticipation of the beginning of spring break, D’Agostino put his lifeguards through search and rescue training, though he said at the time that he hoped his lifeguards wouldn’t ever need to use it.

Making matters worse were murky water conditions churned up by a string of bad weather days earlier this week — conditions that had raised double red flags in Destin and South Walton.

“As soon as someone goes under in conditions like these, it’s like finding a needle in a haystack,” D’Agostino said.

After about 10 minutes of searching, lifeguards and EMTs began running toward a group of guards already in the water. A group of what appeared to be the swimmer’s friends made a beeline for a spot in the Gulf about 15 yards out before being restrained by Okaloosa Sheriff’s deputies and hotel personnel.

In full view of a crowded beach, lifeguards pulled the limp body of a 19-year-old from the surf. Authorities estimate the man had been submerged anywhere from 6 to 10 minutes.

Mothers turned their children away from the scene. One instructed her child to climb into a 3-foot hole her son had dug, as lifeguards laid the swimmer on the beach to begin resuscitation attempts. EMTs on the scene hooked the man up to a heart monitor, began CPR and administered an IV. Beachgoers, most of them college students on spring break, looked on in stunned silence, hands over their mouths in horror.

Within minutes, the sounds of helicopter rotors roared over the beach as the crew of Gulf Flight 1 circled overhead, looking for a place to land their chopper. Law enforcement officers instructed the crowd to “get off the beach” and lifeguards rushed the man off the sand and into a parking lot where the helicopter waited. Authorities at the scene said the man was “a viable patient,” meaning that he had a pulse.

The man, whose identity had not been released at press time, was listed in critical condition Friday morning at Fort Walton Beach Medical Center, according to hospital spokeswoman Vicki Story. Story declined to elaborate on his condition, citing federal privacy laws.
D’Agostino said the swimmer’s friend, who was retrieved by the lifeguards first, told authorities that neither he nor his friend knew how to swim.

They were reportedly out in the Gulf on Boogie Boards, but a board got away from one of the swimmers. As he flailed in the water, the other unsuccessfully tried to help.

A lifeguard chair that the Holiday Inn has sponsored for the last couple seasons — a station the hotel pays about $200 a day for — may have prevented a bad situation from becoming fatal for both swimmers.

“Had it not been for that chair and that lifeguard being on them almost instantly, I can guarantee both of those swimmers — well it wouldn’t have been good,” D’Agostino said. “That chair alone has probably accounted for 100 rescues or assists.”