Pennsylvania man on family vacation pulls drowning man from ocean in North Myrtle Beach
Luis Luna and his family were in the last days of their vacation at North Myrtle Beach when tragedy struck.
Luna was swimming in the ocean with his two boys on July 19 when he saw a man floating in the water nearby, unresponsive.
The man was floating on his back face up but he wasn’t moving, the Pennsylvania man recounted July 21 by phone from his home. Luna said a woman nearby looked at him and said, “I don’t think he’s OK.”
“Water was coming from his mouth,” Luna said.
It was then that Luna began to swim out to the man, who was quite a distance from the beach, he said. When he got to the man, Luna put his arm around him and began to swim back to shore.
The woman who had also seen the man had gone to get help, while Luna’s wife called 911. A group of men helped Luna finish bringing him onto the beach.
Water was coming from the man’s mouth, but he was still unresponsive, Luna said.
Lifeguards and rescue crews arrived quickly and began to tend to the man, Luna said.
Rescue crews worked to save the man
The incident happened near 54th Avenue in the Cherry Grove area about 5:10 p.m., according to North Myrtle Beach Police Officer Pat Wilkinson.
When lifeguards and beach patrol officers arrived, they found the 30-year-old man had been pulled ashore and immediately began life-saving measures to save him, Wilkinson said.
The man was spitting up water but was unresponsive, Wilkinson said. Responders also “detected a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from his mouth,” Wilkinson said.
Lifeguards began CPR and utilized an Automated External Defibrillator (AED), which provided a shock. Beach patrol officers then moved the man to the Beach Patrol truck where lifeguards continued CPR in the back of the truck, transporting him to a waiting ambulance on Ocean Boulevard.
The man was taken to McLeod Seacoast Hospital, where a pulse was restored.
As of July 20, the man was stabilized at the hospital but still unresponsive, Wilkinson said July 21.
‘That day the waves were terrible’
It was the first time Luis Luna and his family had been to North Myrtle Beach. The family were on vacation, arriving July 17.
Luna said the waters were pretty calm for the first days of their trip, but by July 19 the rip current had become strong.
“That day the waves were terrible,” he said. “You could feel it pulling and pushing you.”
The 39-year-old said he is a good swimmer, but he had to swim a good distance to reach the man, who was floating out to sea. He said his feet could no longer touch the sand bottom.
Once on the shore, Luna and others asked bystanders if they knew the man, but couldn’t find anyone who did.
Luna reached out to The Sun News in the hopes he could find out what had happened to the man he helped to rescue.
“It was quite a vacation,” Luna said. “I really want him to make it.”
