Quick actions of Atlantic City lifeguards and firefighters helped save a boy from drowning Saturday.
The 10-year-old was rescued from the water off St. James Place at about 5:30 p.m., where Atlantic City Lifeguard Justin Rau pulled him from the ocean near the rocks, Fire Capt. Frank Phillips said.
When Phillips’ crew arrived, lifeguards were giving CPR to the boy, who was unconscious.
The firefighters then got the boy on a backboard and loaded him into the back of Rescue 2 — a pickup truck — to get him off the beach, Phillips said.
The captain notified dispatch to have emergency medical staff at the Martin Luther King Boulevard beach ramp. But when the firefighters got there, there was no ambulance, he said.
The boy was breathing but the breaths were shallow.
Phillips then made a decision.
"Tell them to meet us at the hospital," he's heard telling dispatch in the radio transmissions recorded by AtlanticCity911. "We’re not waiting."
He then gives a 30-second estimated time of arrival for the hospital.
“I didn’t know how bad his condition was at the time,” he told BreakingAC. “I felt time was of the essence.”
With that, the boy, five firefighters and a lifeguard in with the boy and another truck with five others headed to the Trauma Unit at AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center.
The father of a 7- and 3-year-old said he would make the same decision a hundred times over.
“If it was my kid, that’s how I would have wanted it done,” he said. “And I think it was the right move.”
The boy, whose name has not been released, was in and out of consciousness on the way, as the men with him tried to keep him alert.
They also had him on oxygen.
The boy was later taken to Cooper University Health Care, where he is in stable condition, Phillips said.
He had water in his lungs.
Phillips was proud of his crew, consisting of acting Engine 2 Capt. Genarro Basso, Firefighters Joel Sparano, Andrew Lubaczewski, Chris Hemberger, Chris Ryan, Brian Berrio and Daniel Lopez. Battalion Chief Kevin Munn, Chief Aide Richard Dicioccio and lifeguard John Bennett were also involved.
“I couldn’t have had better people by my side,” he said. “I think they did an excellent job. Those are the top-notch guys we work with, and the Atantic City Beach Patrol is a world-class organization.”
Phillips also made sure to credit Rau’s quick action in getting the boy out of the water. If not for that, he said, “I think it may have turned out differently.”
