---

Driving back to work Wednesday afternoon, Spring Lake resident Danny Swift immediately knew something was very wrong.

“I saw one the gentlemen that works next door run out of the door and it caught my attention,” the 23 year-old said. “I saw the guy run toward the bridge, he tried to run around the lake.”

What Swift soon realized was that a 59-year-old Ocean Grove woman had fallen into Wesley Lake.

“I just saw that she was face down in the water,” Swift said. “I just jumped in and swam across and when he [the neighboring worker] got there we tried to hoist her up because we were knee deep in muddy water.”

The rescue won the praise of the Neptune Office of Emergency Management [OEM] who posted the following on Facebook:

This afternoon, a 9-1-1 call came in for a woman who had fallen into the frigid waters of Wesley Lake [between Ocean Grove and Asbury Park] and appeared to be drowning. Multiple PD, FD and EMS units responded quickly to the scene from both Neptune and Asbury Park. Upon arrival they found that several bystanders with no relation to the victim had already jumped into the water and pulled the unresponsive woman onto shore. Once they pulled her out, one of the bystanders [a retired firefighter] was able to successfully perform CPR, regaining her breathing. Emergency services had simultaneously arrived on-scene to render aid and transported her to the hospital where she remains in stable condition.

We would like to thank and commend these bystanders for their efforts, which undoubtedly saved a life today. In the span of a couple minutes, they witnessed the fall, called 9-1-1, ran to the victim, jumped into the freezing water to pull her out and perform lifesaving CPR. These everyday heroes were more than willing to stop what they were doing and put themselves in harm’s way for someone they had never met. They are an example of what makes this community great, and makes all emergency responders proud to serve it.

But Swift said his action was “just what you do when you see someone in trouble.”

“I realized how important the time factor was that’s why I jumped in and swam across,” he said.  “I saw what need to be done and just went for it.”

Once out of the water Swift said they were able to get “her in a spot to do something. That’s when another gentleman started CPR. He continued it the whole time and I just held her head. We just did that until the EMTs got there.

Swift’s boss at Fitness Lifestyles on Cookman Avenue said he is not surprised by his 5-year-long employee’s heroism.

“He’s a great kid who has seen a lot,” Leo Clark said. “It’s pretty unbelievable what he did but I think instinctively he just went into action.”

“I know if it was someone in my family, I would hope someone would do the same; so I just helped out,” Swift said.

————————————————————–

Follow the Asbury Park Sun on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The Asbury Park Sun is affiliated with the triCityNews newspaper.

---