R. J. Ziemkowski, a visitor from San Diego, was enjoying the privacy of a secluded beach on the Eastside Tuesday when the only other beach-goer in the area, described as a Kaua‘i man in his 70s, staggered from the ocean
R. J. Ziemkowski, a visitor from San Diego, was enjoying the privacy of a secluded beach on the Eastside Tuesday when the only other beach-goer in the area, described as a Kaua‘i man in his 70s, staggered from the ocean looking for help.
The man in distress sure picked the right tourist.
According to a description of the rescue provided by Ziemkowski, he was just returning to the beach from snorkeling an isolated beach known as “Cracks,” just north of Donkey Beach in Kealia, when the man came out of the water and said he thought he was having a stroke.
“He was shaking, sweating. He could barely walk,” said Ziemkowski. “He looked pretty bad.”
The man reached the beach and collapsed, the rescuer said.
So Ziemkowski carried the man over to his truck, and “took off like a bat out of hell” over the torn red-dirt coastal roads makai of Kuhio Highway.
“He kept saying something’s wrong in his brain,” he said, as he lapsed in and out of consciousness.
The sick man was so polite, Ziemkowski said. As the older man would come to, “he kept apologizing for ruining my day and spilling the Diet Coke” Ziemkowski gave him to combat dehydration. “He was a trooper.”
After slamming through potholes and bottoming out his truck, borrowed from his sister, Donna Palmer of Kapa‘a, Ziemkowski took the man to the Kealia Beach lifeguard station. He said he was talking to him, just trying to get the man to remain conscious.
“I didn’t know where the hospital was, but I knew where the lifeguard shack was,” he said.
Kaua‘i Ocean Safety Officers Eugene Ancheta and Pono Pananganan treated the man and called the EMTs and the Kaua‘i Fire Department. The man was rushed to the Wilcox Hospital.
“The man said he had a major headache,” said Ancheta. “He kept saying something popped in the back of his head.”
But before the man got in the ambulance, he made sure he sought Ziemkowski out to shake his hand.
“The thing that touched me the most, he wanted to shake my hand. He wouldn’t have left without giving me a handshake. That was something out of the movies,” he said.
Ziemkowski said he turned around and went back to “Cracks” to retrieve his stuff and the man’s diving gear as well. He went to the hospital to see how the man was, and met the man’s wife. She told him that her husband would be airlifted to an O‘ahu hospital for surgery for a brain aneurysm.
But he never got the woman’s name or number.
“I wish I could talk to him; he was a really cool guy” said Ziemkowski. “You spend only 30 minutes with someone, but (under the circumstances) you have a strange bond.”
As for the idea that he was a hero, Ziemkowski scoffed.
“It makes me feel good, but basically I just drove him out of there. Everybody would have helped him out. It’s not that big of a deal.”
His sister disagreed.
“One of the things I love about Kaua‘i is the aloha and the helping hands you receive from the people who live on this island,” said Palmer. “I know that when he goes back from this vacation, (that) day will be his best day.”
Cindy Mei Ozaki, the county’s public information officer, said the man’s name could not be released due to the county’s policy regarding privacy.
A manager for the American Medical Response ambulance service, citing privacy laws as well, said he could only say that they brought a man to Wilcox Hospital. He could not even release the name of the hospital in Honolulu where the man was flown to.
However, a Straub Hospital employee said that the man is a patient at the hospital in Honolulu, but she would not release any word on his condition.
Staff Writer Tom Finnegan may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 226).
