Lifeguards save man's life after beach collapse at Jersey shore

The day at the beach took an unexpected turn for a man in Atlantic City last weekend. Today, a pair of quickthinking lifeguards are being credited with going above and beyond to save his life. Action News reporter Katie Catro is live in Atlantic City with the full details. Katie? Yeah, and Sarah lifeguards we spoke with say this was a textbook example of training in action and everything went exactly as it should have. It was just about waist deep water out here. A gentleman uh on a boogie board. He uh he collapsed in the water and his wife was there with him and began screaming for help. Lifeguards with the Atlantic City Beach Patrol immediately rushed in on New Hampshire Avenue Beach to save the man's life last Saturday afternoon around 12:30. He was complaining he had shortness of breath and he had a recent heart issue related to low blood pressure that we suspected was the cause of this issue he was having. By the time the lifeguards reached the man, he wasn't able to stand up on his own. That's when they dragged him out to the sand and his heart stopped beating. It seemed like a heart attack from everything I've been trained to to understand how a heart attack uh symptoms happen. I grabbed the AED. I hooked it up to him. Um right away it analyzed and wanted a shock. We shocked him. Soon as it shocked, we went to continue CPR. I was doing a couple compressions when I looked down and he was starting to regain consciousness and uh he started talking and everything like that. So, we uh we were super happy came back with that. Atlantic City Beach Patrol Chief Steve Downey says the man was in the best possible hands. He got lucky cuz that's that's two of our best guys. That's two of our actual trainers that were working on him. So, they're the guys that teach everybody else on the beach how to do CPR. The man in his mid50s later emailed to thank the crew. But that was the first time I've ever received an email back and everything like that. And it was uh nice to know that he was uh in the EMS system. He was a police officer and a volunteer firefighter. So it was good that we could help him out. Lifeguards here say the man did exactly the right thing or in this case his wife did by calling for help right away. It's a reminder to always swim close to lifeguards in case the unexpected happens. Reporting live in Atlantic City, Katie Catro, Channel 6 Action News. Brian and Sarah. Yeah, those lifeguards doing great work every day. Thank you so much.