Two Atlantic City lifeguards saved a Pennsylvania man’s life on the Atlantic City beach on Saturday, Aug. 9.
Kyle Deroo, 28, and Mark Giannini, 35 – two lieutenants on the Atlantic City Beach Patrol (ACBP) rushed to New Hampshire Avenue Beach around 12:30 p.m. after receiving a radio call about a man in respiratory distress.
Kevin Wallace, lead guard with ACBP who was the first on scene, told 6abc Action News that the man, whose name was withheld, was waist-deep in the water on a boogie board when he collapsed. He was with his wife who started screaming for help and managed to get him out of the water.
Deroo, also an emergency medical technician (EMT) on the beach patrol and a Margate firefighter, had just finished helping out with a Heart of Surfing event on the Pennsylvania Avenue beach when he got the call.
“I was just cleaning up, putting the last boards away, when the call came in for a possible cardiac event over at New Hampshire,” Deroo said.
Giannini, also an EMT and a Pleasantville firefighter, was guarding a beach three blocks over when he received the call.
As Deroo approached the scene, he saw the victim, who was out of the water but still in the wet sand. The man was supporting himself on his side, unable to stand.
“When I went over, he wasn’t really with it,” Deroo said.
Then, as Deroo and Giannini dragged him out of the wet sand, they felt the man stop breathing. So they dried him down and started CPR and Deroo used the automated external defibrillator (AED).
The man, in his mid-50s, later sent an email to Atlantic City Beach Patrol Chief Steve Downey, thanking them.
“I regained consciousness to one lifeguard doing chest compressions on me and implementing the AED,” the man wrote in an email to the chief, according to BreakingAC. “That’s when I realized I was in big trouble. This wasn’t just a fainting spell. By this point I was surrounded by what felt like a swarm of first-responders. It was scary as hell, but comforting to know I was in good hands all throughout this incident.”
That “swarm of guards” were junior guards, who had just completed a mandated Advanced First Aid course, according to Deroo. Both Giannini and Deroo taught the course.
In the email, the man said that he is a first responder as well; he served 30 years in law enforcement and 35 as a volunteer firefighter and EMT.
“Your lifeguards performed excellent in time of crisis, and this was THE BIGGEST crisis of my life,” he wrote. “They gave me a fighting chance to survive, and survive I did! They should be VERY proud of their actions!”
Because first responders don’t usually get a “thank you,” Giannini said receiving the email was the best part.
“We do rescue people every single day… but there’s never people that ever come up and say thank you,” said Giannini. “So for him to go out of his way and type up this huge email to our chief, that’s the greatest thing ever.”
