When lifeguards Richard Mills, Kevin Cope and Matt Milbrand finished their shifts on Tuesday, they left knowing they had saved a life.
And yes, that’s a great feeling.
“When these kind of situations play out, you definitely go home feeling good,” Cope said.
The difference between life and death that sunny afternoon, Milbrand said, “was probably a matter of seconds.”
“If we wouldn’t have found her any sooner ….” he said before his voice tailed off.
Mills put it simply like this: “If we weren’t there, that lady definitely would have died.”
But thanks to these three lifeguards, their training, their tools of the trade, their teamwork and faith in each other, the 56-year-old Princeville woman survived, barely, after being swept out while snorkeling on the North Shore.
Mills and Cope were in the lifeguard tower at Ke‘e about 3:45 p.m. when a girl came running up and waving. Someone was in trouble down the beach.
The men grabbed their gear, an extra oxygen kit, loaded a surfboard onto the ATV and raced to the scene about a half-mile away, arriving in less than a minute. There, they found a frantic man, running around the reefs and searching for his missing wife.
The two had gone there to snorkel. The woman took a body board and headed out and, not long after, the man noticed her board washed up on shore, and she was nowhere in sight.
They had selected a dangerous spot.
“We noticed right off the bat there was a lot of water moving,” Cope said. “It wasn’t a safe spot for an inexperienced swimmer, so we suspected she got swept out.”
At that point, time means everything, so Cope grabbed the surfboard, fins and mask and headed out to start his search, while Mills monitored the situation from shore.
Within 30 seconds or so, Cope saw something out of the corner of his eye, further out. He looked again and a wave lifted the woman up, just for a second.
From the beach, Cope heard shouting. He turned and saw that Mills and another man were pointing him in the direction of the woman.
She was about 400 yards from shore.
“She was quite a ways out,” he said. “It was past the surf.”
Through the waves, it was difficult to get a visual on her, but he caught a few glimpses while following directions from the men on shore.
“So I had a good idea of which way I was heading,” he said.
Finally, he saw her, floating on her back. She wasn’t wearing a snorkel mask.
“She looked pretty lifeless,” Cope said. “I was pretty nervous at that time. But one positive thing, she was on her back.”
Most drowning victims are found face down, he said, “so there was some hope.”
“I was kind of yelling to her, and she was making no response as I was paddling to her.”
When Cope reached her, he asked, “Ma’am, are you OK?”
The woman opened her eyes slightly but didn’t answer.
“I knew that was signs of hope,” Cope said, “like she was still there.”
He helped the woman onto the board, which was tricky with the waves. And because she was so tired, she didn’t have any strength to hold onto the board and kept falling to the side.
“So I had to almost lay on top of her to keep the pressure so she would stay on the board,” Cope said. “I knew if a wave came and she got knocked off the board, she may not have enough energy to stay afloat.”
As he paddled in, he saw Milbrand arrive from another lifeguard station. He and Mills prepared medical equipment.
On the beach, Milbrand and Mills picked up the front of the surfboard while Cope lifted the tail and carried her to dry sand.
Milbrand checked for a pulse, which was faint.
“She was super, super unresponsive,” he said. “She wasn’t talking, her eyes were closed. It looked like she wasn’t alive.”
They began rescue-breathing techniques, administered oxygen and monitoring her vital signs. The woman was coughing up water, so they rolled her over every three to four breaths.
It worked.
She began showing signs of improvement, breathing more regularly. She still wasn’t saying much, slurring a few words and mumbling.
“If you can hear me, squeeze my hand,” Milbrand said.
She did.
He told her she was going to be fine.
“She kind of smiled,” Milbrand said.
Soon, a firetruck and medics arrived. Lifeguards, with the firefighters, brought her to the ambulance and she was taken to Wilcox Medical Center, she recovered, and by Friday had returned home.
Her name was not released and she could not be reached for comment.
A county spokesperson said police are investigating how the couple had a placard that gave them access to the North Shore, which has been off limits to the general public since the flooding in April 2018.
Ha‘ena State Park remains closed until at least mid-June.
The county kept the lifeguard station at Ke‘e open as a safety precaution, said a county spokesperson.
If lifeguards hadn’t been posted there, the nearest station is at Pine Trees, some 10 minutes away, from where arriving help probably would have been too late.
Cope believes the lifeguards arrived just in time to save the woman.
“I think she was slowly starting to give up,” he said. “She wasn’t trying to make it back to shore at this time. From what I saw, it felt like she had given up.”
The lifeguards said they would love to hear from her and learn how she is doing.
“It must have been a very scary feeling,” Cope said.
The decision to grab the surfboard proved critical in the rescue and getting the woman to shore quickly.
“It’s kind of like a floating sidewalk,” Cope said. “It’s one step closer to being on dry land.”
Mills has been a lifeguard two years, Milbrand six and Cope four. They recommend people check in with them before heading out.
“She went snorkeling in a spot that was pretty dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing,” Cope said.
“The lifeguards know the conditions of the day. They have signs posted for a reason,” he said. If you want to go out, it’s best to check. You may not notice things that the lifeguard does.”
Later, the men reviewed the situation and how things went down. Overall, they believed it was a happy ending because they responded quickly and used teamwork.
“We all kind of had our own things we were doing,” Cope said.
For instance, on the beach, it was Milbrand’s idea to grab a blanket, position the ATV and have the husband hold one end to create a canopy to shade the woman.
“We were just trying to get her to respond to us. We were trying to do anything to make her more comfortable,” he said.
The husband, crying and unable to say much initially, gradually calmed down as he saw his wife was recovering.
“I was trying to give him assurance she would be fine,” Milbrand said.
They said people often get in trouble because “they don’t understand the way the ocean works.”
“Some people have common sense. Some don’t,” Milbrand said.
The men recounted their story while at Pine Trees, where they surveyed the scene on a beautiful Friday morning. Adults and kids played along the shoreline. Some ventured into the water and rode the waves.
Cope watched the two on paddleboards who were far out. They looked strong and should be fine, he said. But, still, the men would keep a close eye on them — along with everyone else there.
“It’s way easier to go out than to come in,” he said.
