A man hospitalized after an Aug. 9 water rescue at the northern tip of Anna Maria Island died Aug. 10 at HCA Florida Blake Hospital in Bradenton.
Authorities said the emergency began about 10:35 a.m., when a 15-year-old was swept by a rip current while playing in the surf near the Passage Key Inlet channel with his 45-year-old father, Benjamin Tuffley of Keystone Heights, near Jacksonville.
MCSO Sgt. Brett Getman and Deputy Vincent Bowman, on routine beach patrol, were alerted by beachgoers at the Fern Street entrance to Bean Point that two people had been swept into the pass and were struggling.
Getman and Bowman moved into action, initiating rescue efforts.
Getman entered the water with a rescue buoy and swam 25 yards to reach the teen, while Bowman maintained a line to shore, coordinated radio traffic and directed arriving rescue units.
The teen was escorted to land, exhausted but safe.
The father, who had been unable to escape the rip current, was farther offshore in the channel. Lifeguards paddled out and stabilized him on a rescue board as an MCSO marine unit arrived.
He suffered an apparent heart attack in the water and lost consciousness, according to West Manatee Fire Rescue Marshal Rodney Kwiatkowski.
Marine deputies transferred the man to a patrol boat and resuscitative efforts were initiated. County emergency medical services met the vessel at Galati Marine in Anna Maria for transport to Blake, where he died the next day.
In a second incident, Aug. 9, near the Sandbar restaurant, a 73-year-old man, Rolando Hernandez, address unknown, drowned while swimming about 20 yards from shore.
People had brought Hernandez from the water to the beach and began resuscitation before EMS took over, but he did not survive.
Speaking in an Aug. 16 interview with The Islander, Anna Maria Mayor Mark Short said he was informed Aug. 13 by Getman that another two swimmers were rescued Aug. 12 near Bean Point, close to the site of the Aug. 9 incident.
In that incident, Deputy Matt Daugherty and Detective Nate Boggs were first on scene; Daugherty entered the water with a rescue buoy and brought both swimmers to shore. Short said both the deputy and the detective were nominated for the MCSO Deputy of the Month award and that Getman has been nominated by his superiors for the MCSO Lifesaving Award.
Short also reminded that warning signs are posted at every city beach access in Anna Maria and that often where there are incidents, they involve visitors unfamiliar with strong currents at the island’s north tip, at the confluence of the Gulf of Mexico and Tampa Bay.
Following the week’s higher-than-usual instance of water emergencies, he said he asked commissioners at their Aug. 14 meeting to consider designating a no-swim zone at the far north end of Bean Point, citing a history of water emergencies in that area.
He added that lifeguard towers are a county function, limited to public beaches, and that much of the Anna Maria beachfront is private, extending to the mean high-water line. Short also pointed to recent tidal swings that may have created strong undercurrents, even when surface conditions appeared calm.
Another water rescue was reported from the same week in Bradenton Beach.
According to Bradenton Beach Police Lt. Lenard Diaz, who spoke to The Islander Aug. 18 by phone, Manatee County emergency medical services responded Aug. 11 to a water emergency at Coquina Beach near lifeguard tower 7.
According to Diaz, a man and a woman were caught in a rip current and swept offshore before being rescued by members of the county beach patrol. Both victims were transported to HCA Florida Blake Hospital in Bradenton.
No further information was available.