A 12-year-old New Zealand boy, who was swept out to sea by rough
waters, was rescued by beachgoers after they formed a human chain
to pull the boy back to the shore.
Josh McQuoid has been playing with a friend along the water’s edge
on Marine Parade in Napier, New Zealand, Sunday when he was whisked
out to sea, and close to drowning, according to One News in New
Zealand.
McQuoid was dragged nearly 500 feet along the beach and fought
eight long minutes for air against the pounding surf.
“The waves smashed me so much, there were five really big ones,
they flipped me around quite a few times,” McQuoid told One News.
“I think the longest for about 20 seconds.”
Constable Paul Bailey of the Napier Police was the first one into
the water to attempt to rescue McQuoid, but he had a difficult time
holding on to him.
“A few times under the waves I was thinking, ‘Have I done the right
thing charging in here? Is it going to be two bodies they’re
looking for,” Bailey told One News.
Another police officer instructed others to form a human chain from
the shoreline into the water to bring McQuoid and Bailey to
safety.
McQuoid was unresponsive when his lifeless body was brought back to
shore. Once again, his rescuers stepped up and helped revive him
before he was taken to a local hospital.
The dramatic video during captured during the rescue shows more
than a dozen people holding hands from the beach into the whitecap
waves to bring the two to safety.
“I’d love to thank them so much for what they did. They save my
life. If it wasn’t for them I’d be dead,” McQuoid told One
News.
Joshua on the left