Beachgoers rescue man in Newport’s China Cove
It was just a day on the beach for Alyce Cancellieri and Jai Snowdon until they saw a man floating in the water at China Cove in Newport Beach.
The two Newport residents were on the beach with a group of family and friends the afternoon of Sept. 26 when they noticed what they called a belligerent middle-aged man walking down the shore with a woman holding a paddleboard and accompanied by two small corgi dogs.
“The man was stumbling around,” Cancellieri said. “He seemed intoxicated, and the woman seemed to get fed up.”
The woman took the board into the water and left the man behind on the sand, they said.
The scene was disturbing enough to prompt Cancellieri and Snowdon to call police. They said they suspected something bad might happen.
Then the man tried to swim after the woman.
As Cancellieri walked down the beach to get a better view of him, she noticed that he was not moving in the water.
As a childcare professional and former junior lifeguard, Cancellieri reacted on instinct and jumped into the water after him.
Snowdon, who received lifesaving training when he lived in Australia, gave his 2-year-old son to his wife and ran into the ocean to swim after Cancellieri.
Snowdon got to the man first. When he rolled him over, his eyes were wide open and his face was purple, Snowdon said.
Snowdon cradled the man’s head while Cancellieri tried to keep the lower half of his 200-plus-pound body afloat.
Several boats passed as Cancellieri and Snowdon struggled to keep the man, and themselves, afloat, Cancellieri said.
The two were shouting “Help us, we’re drowning,” but nobody helped, she said.
“I was in shock,” she said. “I thought we would drown with everyone circling us.”
In the end, two men in a small boat stopped to help.
“It was amazing and a big relief,” Cancellieri said.
Snowdon said they could not have kept the man afloat much longer.
“Those guys on the boat were great,” Snowdon said. “If they weren’t out there, who knows what would have happened.”
Knowing they needed to get the man medical help as soon as possible, they sped the boat toward the nearby Coast Guard dock.
Summoning the lessons he learned from his lifesaving classes, Snowdon began to administer mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on the man and pounded on his chest, but there was no pulse.
After they pulled up to the dock, an Orange County sheriff’s deputy administered CPR and was able to revive the man, Cancellieri said.
The Sheriff’s Department told Cancellieri and Snowdon this week that the man is fine, though they still don’t know his name.
“It’s all very surreal still,” Cancellieri said.
“It’s a weird feeling,” Snowdon said. “I wasn’t going to sit back and watch somebody die. It’s not in me.”
Twitter: @benbrazilpilot
