Quick thinking by West Hartford mom, her son, and her son’s friend saved a young couple from drowning off the coast of a secluded beach in Puerto Rico.

By Ronni Newton

A trip to Puerto Rico to celebrate her son’s 16th birthday turned into a lifesaving experience for West Hartford resident Sheri Shea, her son Aidan Shea, and Cole Canarie when the three sprang into action to rescue a young couple from the waters off a secluded beach.

Shea took her son and his friend to Puerto Rico for the long weekend that resulted from school holidays for Columbus Day and Yom Kippur, planning to spend some time sightseeing in Old San Juan and El Yunque, as well as swimming in the ocean.

On Monday, Oct. 10, the trio headed to Piñones beach in Loiza, in search of a secluded beach with nice big waves.

“We stopped at two other spots and checked out the waves and had decided that the ridge of rocks close to the shore was a little too dangerous to body surf,” Shea said. “On the third try, we pulled in beside a roadside barbecue shack that had a path to the beach and it turned out to be the perfect spot – a ‘paradise found.'”

Shea described the waves as “big, not huge” and added that the undertow was a bit unnerving. However, she said that she’s a former lifeguard and strong swimmer with years of ocean swimming experience, and Aidan, a sophomore at Kingswood Oxford, and Cole, a junior at Hall High School, are also strong swimmers.

Confident that all could handle themselves, Shea and the boys went for a swim around 11 a.m.

“After about 15 minutes, and 100 feet from shore, I noticed a young girl, in her mid 20s, enter the water and my natural instinct was to just watch and make sure she knew what she was doing,” Shea recalled. The girl was with a young man, whom Shea guessed was her boyfriend, but he was still setting things up on the beach.

Shea said that the girl made it over the break line of the waves, and appeared fine, so Shea continued to swim with the boys.

“Five minutes later, after the three of us popped up out of a wave, we heard screams of ‘Ayuda! Ayuda!’ We looked over and saw the girl and the guy in distress. The girl raised her arm and the guy was bobbing under the water,” Shea said.

Shea said that she was about 40 yards away at that point, and swam as quickly as she could toward the couple. “At about 20 feet away from them I looked up to make sure I was on the right sight line and saw the guy sinking and the girl trying to hold him,” she said. Cole was right behind her and she yelled to Aidan to call for help.

When Shea reached the couple, both were conscious but distressed and unable to answer questions. She held onto both for about 10 seconds, and when Cole got there, Shea told him to hang onto the girl and swim her to the shore, being sure to keep her head out of the water.

Aidan had already reached the shore, grabbed a phone, and was running to the barbecue shack to request help.

“I put my left arm under the guy’s shoulder blades and tried forcing him on his back. I slowly swam to shore, making sure his nose and mouth cleared the water,” Shea said. She estimated that the guy weighed about 225 pounds, and she said while she was dragging him it felt like they were being pulled back out to sea.

The exhausting swim took about 10 minutes, Shea said, but just before reaching shore a crashing wave separated them. “The guy flipped over, face in the sand. I quickly flipped him on his back and was able to let the force of the water help me get him to shore,” she recalled.

Shea said that both were breathing, and had never fully lost consciousness, so she did not administer CPR. While waiting for the emergency responders, whom Aidan had called, she did put both in the Haines Recovery position – to keep their airways open and allow fluids to drain from the mouth – and both vomited within minutes, she said.

It took about 15 minutes for the paramedics to arrive, Shea said, and during that time the guy recovered enough to tell her that his name was Xavier and he was 25, and his girlfriend, Ruby, was 26. Both were from the area. She assured them that help was on the way.

Xavier said the couple had brought their dog to the beach, but the small white dog was nowhere in sight. As the paramedics left with Ruby in an ambulance and Xavier close behind, Shea took down his phone number and promised to text if the dog was spotted.

The story has an extra happy ending.

“Later that day, we saw the dog running like crazy near the spot where the couple had put out their stuff. Aidan nabbed the dog and I texted the guy. He recovered his dog, shook my hand, said thank you and left,” said Shea.

The three resumed their vacation, with the boys building a lean-to on the beach as shelter from a thunderstorm, more swimming, and sightseeing. They returned to West Hartford on Wednesday.

“Kind of crazy that we chose that spot on that day,” said Shea, who is the director of summer programs for Kingswood Oxford and director of Fern Park Tennis. “In all my years in athletics and with camps and kids programs I had never faced a life or death situation. I was just glad that instincts and adrenalin took over and we were able to help them.”

“It was a team effort and I was really proud of how cool and calm Aidan and Cole were under the circumstances,” said Shea.

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