Benjamin Ramsay

Benjamin Ramsay helped rescue a boy from drowning, Seattle, Washington, April 21, 2021. While swimming near a floating diving platform in Green Lake, the teenage boy submerged and sank to the bottom about 80 feet from shore. Alerted by shouts for help, Ramsay, 24, a paddleboarder seated nearby on the platform, paddled toward the commotion. Although the murky, 65-degree water obscured Ramsay’s ability to see beneath the water’s surface, bubbles rising to the surface near his paddleboard led him to conclude that the boy submerged at that spot. Ramsay jumped off his paddleboard and dived about 15 feet to the bottom, where he located the boy, grasped his arm, and dragged him to the surface, where his paddleboard no longer was within reach. Ramsay took a deep breath and repositioned the unresponsive boy, wrapping an arm around his chest. He then slowly backstroked toward shore but soon was expending more energy keeping the boy, nearly his size, afloat as their heads bobbed at the waterline. A female paddleboarder in another party then responded to them at a point halfway to shore, and Ramsay grasped onto the board with one arm while continuing to hold onto the boy. The woman, who by then was leaning across the sideways paddleboard while holding onto Ramsay and the boy, then kicked, helping them into shallow water. The boy was moved onto shore, where he expelled water during efforts to revive him. He recovered after treatment at a hospital. Ramsay was cold and fatigued, but did not require medical treatment.