Cooperative Effort Saves Drowning Man

By Jason Biondo

Tragedy was averted Monday afternoon when a group of beachgoers, lifeguards, and doctors worked together to save a drowning man in the ocean waters off Treasure Island Drive in Amagansett.

Yesterday Edward Davey, 52, of Clinton Academy Lane in Amagansett was recovering in the intensive care unit at Southampton Hospital. According to Tish Davey, his wife, he is a "strong swimmer" who nevertheless would have drowned in the rip current had it not been for the heroic efforts of those who just happened to be on the scene.

At about 3:15 p.m., Elliot Kervan, M.D., an anesthesiologist at St. Joseph's Hospital in Paterson, N.J., heard a man calling for help from the ocean. Dr. Kervan, who was sitting on the deck of Richard Plotkin's oceanfront house, saw the man go under the rough sea, resurface, and yell for help again.

As the doctor dashed to the shore, Renee Gruber of New City, N.Y., also spotted Mr. Davey. Ms. Gruber, who was walking the beach with her friend Meghan O'Shea of Manhattan, decided to make an unassisted rescue. "I said, Meghan, I'm going in," Ms. Gruber said.

Immediately after hearing the distress call, Dr. Kervan grabbed a rescue tube flotation device kept at the Treasure Island Drive private property owners' beach.

Mr. Plotkin's house is actually part of the adjacent Gansett Dunes community, whose members voted not to have such a device because, said Mr. Plotkin, Dr. Kervan's father-in-law and an attorney in Morristown, N.J., the presence of such lifesaving devices "may be encouraging for people to swim there. We didn't want that responsibility." Mr. Plotkin added that at the next meeting, in June 2002, the members will "probably want to revisit this issue."

Back at the scene, Dr. Kervan passed the rescue tube to Bill Rohlfing, a Treasure Island Drive resident who was on the beach with Jeanette McClennon, his wife, and Joan Pesek of Lutherville, Md., who was vacationing at her parents' house on Treasure Island Drive. "I'm a better doctor than I am a swimmer," Dr. Kervan explained.

For his part, Mr. Rohlfing described his decision to go in as "kind of instinctive." Ms. Pesek, who for years was a pool lifeguard in New Hyde Park, was about 30 seconds behind him with a ring life preserver tied to a 20-foot rope. She handed the rope to Dr. Kervan, she said, and told him not to let it go before she dove in.

Rescuer In Trouble

Ms. Pesek said that because Ms. Gruber had no flotation device of her own she too became a potential victim. "It was very rough out there," Ms. Pesek said. "Renee got into trouble. She was saying, 'Help me.'" Ms. Pesek managed to help Ms. Gruber safely back to land, but the rescue was far from over.

According to Mr. Rohlfing, Mr. Davey was about 60 feet from the shoreline, just outside the breakers. "I think he was exhausted," said the rescuer, whose father and two brothers were ocean lifeguards in Wildwood, N.J. "He was trying to breathe, and even though I only saw his face two or three times, I could see his eyes were huge. He said 'Help me' and 'save.' Those are the only three words I got from him."

With an eight-foot leash attached to the rescue tube, Mr. Rohlfing at first tried throwing the device to Mr. Davey, but Mr. Davey was not able to hold onto it. In addition, the two had drifted into the surf zone. After both men were hit by what Mr. Rohlfing called "probably one of the biggest waves I've seen out here," he said, "I was worried for my own life as well."

The force of the wave sent the Mr. Rohlfing about 20 feet from Mr. Davey and knocked the latter man closer to the beach. Swimming parallel to the shore, he made a second attempt at getting the rescue tube to Mr. Davey.

It was successful. "He wrapped himself around it," Mr. Rohlfing said. "He just held on for dear life."

With the victim in tow, Mr. Rohlfing swam to where Ms. Pesek, who had swum back out after rescuing Ms. Gruber, was waiting for them. "I put the strap [of the rescue tube] around the ring buoy," he said, and then signaled to the people on the beach, including a revived Ms. Gruber, to pull them in. "It felt like a relay," he said.

While a tired Mr. Rohlfing held to the leash, Ms. Pesek grabbed Mr. Davey in a cross-body hold, cradling his head above water, and those on the other end of the rope pulled the three back to the sand.

"It was quite a team effort," said Ms. McClennon, who was also among the five rope pullers.

Dr. Kerven had managed to call 911 while the water rescue was happening, which he said took between five and ten minutes. The moment Mr. Davey came ashore, Dr. Kerven turned him onto his side. "He was breathing very rapid, shallow breaths," the doctor said, adding that Mr. Davey was cyanotic, meaning that his body was lacking oxygen. "He was blue," Dr. Kerven said.

Sgt. Wes Payne of the East Hampton Town Police and Frank Kennedy of the town harbormasters arrived shortly after Dr. Kerven took over. Mr. Davey had spat up much of the sea water he had swallowed, and the doctor ran back to his father-in-law's house to get dry towels for the shivering man.

The assisting officers applied an oxygen mask to Mr. Davey, which, according to Dr. Kerven, "turned him pink again."

Also at the scene was Dr. Lou Sank, a pediatrician who lives two doors down from the Plotkins. The second doctor did his part by taking Mr. Davey's medical history from his wife, Dr. Kerven said.

According to John J. Ryan, an East Hampton Town lifeguard trainer, Jeremy Blutstein and Larry Hren also ran to the scene from their lifeguard post at Atlantic Beach, nearly half a mile to the west. While the lifeguards and volunteers from the Amagansett Fire Department Ambulance Company assisted Mr. Davey, members of the civilian rescue team recapped the situation.

"It's numbing," said Mr. Rohlfing, who said he was not sure if he would have done the same thing again. "I have three kids and a wife. You wonder why you were there at the moment."

"I thought he was gone," Ms. Gruber said of Mr. Davey, with whom she had spoken on the phone yesterday afternoon.

"It was a pretty heroic thing," Ms. McClennon said, adding that her husband had rescued a child "three or four years ago" from the same waters. "A lot of people don't know about the rip tide."

September Risks

After Labor Day weekend, the town beaches at Kirk Park in Montauk and Atlantic Avenue, Indian Wells, and Albert's Landing in Amagansett will be under lifeguard supervision only on Sept. 8, 9, 15, and 16. In East Hampton Village, Main and Georgica Beaches will be guarded every Saturday and Sunday in September.

Mr. Ryan said on Monday that the risk to swimmers can be reduced if they know their limitations, recognize that water conditions and temperature can suddenly change, and do not panic or try to swim against a rip current.

"Swim sideways, parallel to the waves," Mr. Ryan advised. He added that, once out of the current, swimmers should use the waves and swells to get back to shore. In addition, he said, swimming alone is never a good idea.

"You are the protection," he said.

With Reporting By

Susan Rosenbaum