Tyler P. Feagan helped to save Melvin Todd from drowning, Panama City Beach, Florida, April 10, 2013. Todd, 28, and a friend were swimming in the Gulf of Mexico when they were taken into deeper water farther from the beach by a strong current. Their efforts to swim against the current fruitless, they called for help at a point about 200 feet from shore. Feagan, 18, high school student, and a male friend were in wadable water atop a sandbar about halfway between the victims and the beach in that vicinity. They swam to Todd and his friend. Feagan grasped Todd, who had submerged, and pulled him to the surface of the water, and then he held to Todd as he swam, with difficulty, toward shore. Feagan submerged en route but then separated himself from Todd and calmed him before proceeding. Feagan’s friend, meanwhile, had returned Todd’s friend to shore, and he joined Feagan to help with Todd, as did a lifeguard who responded with a rescue device. Feagan was tired after the rescue, but he recovered.
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