Marcos Diaz helped to save Rolando Riverón from drowning, Key Largo, Florida, July 19, 2012. While fishing, Riverón, 47, and two other men were thrown into the Atlantic Ocean when their small boat capsized late in the day at a point about 800 feet from shore. Although his two companions were able to swim to shore, where they alerted help, Riverón was tangled in fishing line, preventing him from swimming. He held to a plastic cooler to keep him afloat. Diaz, 29, state trooper, responded to the shore at the scene. He removed items of attire and then entered the water and began to swim toward Riverón. The tide was rising, and choppy water and a northward current impeded his efforts. Emergency medical personnel arrived on shore, and from them Diaz obtained a body-immobilization board. Diaz lay atop it and, using it as a surfboard, swam to Riverón. He extended one end of the board to Riverón and then gave him a knife, which Riverón used to cut himself free of the fishing line. Both men held to the board and attempted to return to shore in waning daylight, but they tired against the current. The Coast Guard had been alerted, and Diaz used a light that Riverón was wearing to signal its approaching craft. The men were taken aboard the boat and returned to shore, tired but uninjured.
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