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Another dramatic rescue of a young life has taken place this summer as strong ocean waves and powerful tides continue to prove challenging for vacationers and travelers.
Two lifeguards at Silver Beach in Volusia County, Florida, are being credited with lifesaving action on July 30.
Lifeguard Dempsey Manhart was just about to take his lunch break, he said, when the family of a young child flagged him down, frantically waving for help, as FOX 35 Orlando reported.
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The boy was unconscious and was being held in the arms of a family member, Manhart recalled.
He began helping to bring the boy in from the water when his co-lifeguard, Mackenzie Malone, arrived beside him and checked the boy’s pulse — at which point the lifeguards immediately began CPR on the child.
Malone, who’s been working as a lifeguard for her fourth summer, told FOX 35 this was the first time she experienced saving a child from drowning.
“We’re always expecting anything,” she said. “We’re always prepared. We always make sure that we know what to do no matter what the scenario is.”
She said the moment her co-lifeguard shouted to her that he was going on a rescue, “I knew that it was going to be serious.”
Then everything kicked up a notch.
“The moment I saw that [the child] was unconscious, that he had a wound on his head … I knew that it was going to be something big.”
The duo began performing CPR on the child.
In short order, he began breathing on his own again.
Malone later said her lifeguarding and life-saving training kicked in.
“Thankfully, it ended up in a positive direction,” she told FOX 35. “I’m just very grateful that [with] everything we followed, it worked out and that [the boy] actually is able to have a life and come home to a family.”
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The lifeguards said they hope the rescue of the child provides a reminder for beachgoers to swim near staffed lifeguard towers — where trained responders can provide immediate assistance in an emergency.
“Heroes!! I am grateful to learn just how well-trained beach lifeguards are,” wrote a Facebook user about the Florida beach rescue.
Volusia County is about 50 miles northeast of Orlando, in the east-central region of Florida.
“God bless their strength,” wrote another person.
The rescue of the 5-year-old boy comes shortly after the heroic rescue of another child, this one by 16-year-old lifeguard Ryder Williams in Santa Cruz, California. Williams braved pounding surf and massive waves to bring a struggling 10-year-old boy safely back to shore, as Fox News Digital reported.
“God bless their strength.”
President Donald Trump has invited the teen lifeguard to the White House to celebrate his brave actions.
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Fox News Digital previously reported that Los Angeles County lifeguards performed nearly 2,000 ocean rescues during a single weekend this summer as elevated surf and dangerous rip currents swept Southern California beaches.
Officials have encouraged visitors to speak with lifeguards about ocean conditions before entering the water.
Swimmers caught in a rip current are advised not to fight it.
Instead, they should remain calm, swim parallel to the shoreline until they escape the current, then angle back toward shore, according to the National Weather Service.
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Those who cannot escape should float or tread water and signal for help.
Andrea Margolis of Fox News Digital contributed reporting.
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