NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. (WSVN) — A 21-year-old man has made a full recovery after being rescued from a rip current that almost took his life at New Smyrna Beach.
Volusia County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Stan Manhart was one of the first responders on the scene and he shared Felipe Ribeiro Desouza’s initial response after the rescue.
“The first thing he said was he’s never going to the beach again,” said Manhart.
Desouza was among several people caught in the rip current that day but was the only one found unresponsive. Two boogie boarders pulled him out of the water and kept him afloat until lifeguard Dalton Smith arrived.
“We just let him know that they needed to his head up above water,” said Smith. “And we just swam them all in together.”
Ty Tarnow, with the New Smyrna Fire Department, recalled the challenges of performing CPR on a slippery board in wet conditions but it did not stop rescuers from trying.
“With the patient being slippery, the board being wet they were able to maintain the patient on the board and doing very effective CPR,” said Tarnow.
Once Ribeiro Desouza was handed off to the New Smyrna Fire Department, they still had the tough job of getting his pulse back.
“With saltwater drownings, what happens is when the saltwater enters the lungs, you have a major fluid shift in the body,” added Tarnow. “So that creates pulmonary edema. So this this patient needed advanced lifesaving airway procedures.”
Tarnow says the victim didn’t have a pulse for somewhere between 5 to 7 minutes.
“It was just a miracle that this young man was able to pull through,” he added. “You’re only as strong as your weakest link, and there were no weak links here.”
Ribeiro Desouza was swimming far from a staffed lifeguard tower when he almost drowned. He has since made a full recovery.
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