Elderly Woman Rescued From Rip Current On South Shore By Former Nantucket Lifeguard

Erin O’Brien was enjoying a day at the beach with her family Sunday afternoon when suddenly her mom and aunt noticed a woman who appeared to be in distress in the water near Ladies Beach. Initially O’Brien – who was a Nantucket lifeguard in the summer of 2018 and a head guard in 2020 – thought it was a woman standing in the ocean.

“It was at Beach 13C down by Ladies to the left, so it is not guarded but you still get south shore waves,” O’Brien said. “We come here all the time. I was here with my aunt and my mom, and they noticed it first as I was putting on sunscreen. When I first looked up, I thought it was a girl ignoring two women on the beach because it looked like she was standing because it was in a rip further out by where the waves were crashing and as I finished applying sunscreen I looked up and my aunt and my mom said, ‘You need to go.’ Then I realized she was unresponsive, so I began sprinting and swam out. As I was sprinting in, someone on the beach started calling 911 and two women on the beach were yelling for a group of boys that were near us to go into the water too with their boogie boards.”

O’Brien said she immediately began to put into work the lessons she learned while working for harbormaster Sheila Lucey. Once she reached the woman, she noticed that not only was she stuck in the current, but also was unable to move her arms or body.

“Luckily the boys came out and made it,” O’Brien said. “I got her underneath my arm because I didn’t have a tube or a floatation device with me, but they had a boogie board. So at first we tried to put her arms on the boogie board so she was a little bit lifted and would help us ride in the waves with her, but she couldn’t even hold the boogie board or get her arms on it.”

O’Brien said the three boys, whose names have been revealed to be Alex Faust, Cooper Rosenstein, Sam DiAngelo of Short Hills, New Jersey, wrapped themselves around the woman along with O’Brien and began to slowly walk the woman into shore.

“We finally made it to the sandbar, but she was still really, really pale,” O’Brien said. “Eventually we were able to get her in and carried her out of the water doing the firemen’s carry and then similar to how we are taught with lifeguarding carried her up, turned her on the beach, and sat her down and sat her in the sand looking at the water to get her breathing regulated.”

O’Brien said other beachgoers came over and began to provide assistance as well.

“We went through her medical history, asking what she’s eaten, her name, date, time, everything,” O’Brien said. “She was very responsive, but she really wanted to lay down and was still extremely pale. Thankfully the lifeguards arrived on scene shortly after we pulled her out of the water and got her situated. They were fantastic. They were amazing. The moved so calm, so helpful, and took over with grace and were so hardworking. They did it seamlessly. It was completely second nature, and I was blown away by it.”

O’Brien said paramedics arrived on scene with two fire trucks and an ambulance and eventually, care was transferred to the fire department.

“It all ended up going great thanks to (the Nantucket Fire Department) too,” she said.

O’Brien reiterated that without the heroic efforts of Faust, Rosenstein, and DiAngelo who ran into the water to assist with the rescue, the end result may not have been the same.

“When she was out there, she was responsive and she could talk but could not move her body,” O’Brien said. “So it was basically like us swimming in with a body. But those boys were fantastic. They were amazing. I didn’t even get their names (initially), but they were three boys who ran in and came to help her. They were such great listeners because I immediately was like ‘Alright this is what we need to do.’ They helped me lift her, bring her in, and sit her down. The beach patrons were phenomenal including the two different people calling 911.”

The water rescue was one of seven over the weekend along Nantucket's beaches as big surf prompted Nantucket Harbormaster Sheila Lucey to close several lifeguarded areas to swimming on Sunday. Lucey praised the actions of O'Brien, town lifeguards, Fire Department personnel, and the bystanders who were involved in Sunday's rescue near Ladies Beach, which she described as being the "most significant."

"We are so grateful that Erin was there - she’s gone down in history as one of our very best lifeguards," Lucey said. "We are lucky she was there to orchestrate this rescue with the untrained personnel. We have standardized our rescues and now the past and present crews can work seamlessly. We had the best of the best to help this woman and I couldn’t be more grateful! I also want to thank NFD for bringing this to the finish line. A great day for all involved."