EMT at Fatal Boat Accident: Wish We Could Have Done More

On Aug. 10, Georgia Johnson, 71, of 136 Waverly Ave. in Patchogue just before 10 a.m. near the Old Field Point lighthouse.

That morning, four members of the happened to be in the water training on a fire department rescue boat when they heard unconfirmed reports about the accident from county dispatchers. When the information was confirmed, they detoured into the direction of the reported incident.

Bystanders were already on the beach performing CPR on Johnson when they arrived. There was a harbormaster on scene as well. Two of the crew from the Miller Place Fire Department on the rescue boat, one an EMT, made it ashore to assist.

Patch spoke with Michel A. Devaux, the EMT from the Miller Place Fire Deparment rescue boat that responded to the call that day. Devaux talks about the water conditions that day, the reason why the boat went down and what was happening when they arrived on scene.

What were the water conditions when you arrived on scene?

The fire boat had gone out when it did due to the adverse surface conditions that I expected from the wind and tide conditions. The boat was out for the purpose of training Tom Van de Kieft as an additional pilot. Anyone can drive the boat on a good day, it's the sloppy days that most people get in trouble.

The wind was blowing out of the Northwest and there was a 3 to 4 foot swell running on a short fetch. The tide that day had changed at about 9:30 a.m.

Did you see the boat?

It took us less than seven minutes to respond from our location. As we approached Old Field we spotted a debris field approximately a quarter mile to the east of the lighthouse. We parallelled the field and approached the light house. We spotted a small portion of what appeared to be the nose of the boat sticking out of the water. The boat was about 150 to 200 yards off the lighthouse.

Was the boat totally sunk?

No.

How much of the boat was sticking out of the water?

About 18 to 24 inches of the boat nose was visible and I didn't see any anchor line.

Reports say that the boat was achored and the tide came up on them and they couldn't get the anchor up. Do you know anything about that?

A gentleman who I believed was the boat owner said that they were anchored and when the tide turned and water started pouring into the boat and they were swept out of the boat.

We have heard reports that the people who rescued the victim started CPR. Is that how you found the situation?

When we arrived on the scene I observed that CPR was in progress on the beach we therefore proceed to the beach location to the Northeast side of the lighthouse. The harbormaster boat was on scene and I could see a gentleman named Mr. Dunn preforming one-person CPR.

Due to the rocky nature of the location, the small size of the beach area and the present position of two boats and the wind and current we couldn't pull up to the beach. So we anchored and the harbormaster boat backed out and we transferred John Hagermann and myself to the his boat along with a stokes basket.

Tom Van de kieft and Roger Rzplenski stayed with our boat. Once on the beach we relieved Mr. Dunn and took over the CPR. I preformed several cycles of CPR and transfered to the stokes and then to the Habormaster boat. A Suffolk County police officer joined us and we continued CPR to the until we transferred the patient to an ambulance.

Reports say that the woman died from a heart attack and not drowning. Is that true?

Our responsibility was to treat the patient as to the best of our ability and not to speculated on the cause of death. I found a woman in cardiac arrest with CPR in progress. Questions of this nature need to be refered to the hospital or medical examiner.

Anything else that you can say about the accident?

I only wish we could have had a more positive outcome in this situation. We train hard and do all we can and regretfully, sometimes our best just isn't good enough. A special thanks to the harbormaster, Mr. Dunn and the Suffolk County police officer who assisted us.

I offer our condolences to the family members and wish we could have done more.

Additional reporting was done for this interview by .