When Emily Churchill heard panicked screams while enjoying a day at the beach with her friend, she said her “instincts took over.”
It was a good thing because within seconds a 12-year-old boy was swept out to sea by the strong current.
“I saw a head in the water, which was torn off very quickly. Churchill said, when I saw it running faster, I started running as fast as I could.
Churchill nurses were behind the heroic rescue reported by Global News at Conrad Beach, a half-hour east of Halifax, last Wednesday.
Fiona Pauline, 12, was at the beach that day with her friend and her friend’s mother. The girls were out of the water when she was hit by a large wave, which pulled her into the strong current and washed her onto the beach. beach. sea. ,
Churchill, an off-duty nurse, jumped into the water without hesitation to help the young swimmer who was struggling to get back to shore and keep his head above water.
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“The waves were very strong and bigger than I expected. Churchill recalled: “I tried to keep my head down as much as possible, but there was too much seaweed, so I just tried to reach out to him, call out to him, scream his name. Before.”
“By the time I got to him, we were reaching out, picking each other up, and I said, ‘You did the right thing.’ You did the right thing. We’ll get you back.
Churchill said he turned Fiona around and the two tried to swim diagonally toward shore.
“When we came back, there was just this huge wave coming over us and sinking us really hard, like it was drowning us both right away, and I was able to dip my feet in it. Finished.” “To keep us stable in that position,” Churchill said.
Churchill said he could bring them back to shore safely.
Although they had worked as lifeguards in the past, the nurses said it was the first time they had rescued someone, but they said their previous training and experience in surfing had simply disappeared.
“Nerves and adrenaline. Am I getting there fast enough? When I find him, can I take him back?” He said what was on his mind at that moment.
Fiona’s mother, Sarah, and her mother’s friend, Emily Bolhuis, both declared Churchill a hero, but did not describe themselves as such.
“I don’t consider myself a hero. I’m just a man of action,” Churchill said.
After this experience, Churchill said he would like to see warning signs about the dangers of rapids so that swimmers know how to recognize them and what to do if they get caught in them.
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