Lifeguards, bystanders, fire department, help save trio from drowning at Cape Cod Beach

Three swimmers at a Cape Cod beach can credit several people with saving their lives after a swim went wrong.

According to police, on Thursday, just before 3:00 p.m., the Dennis Police Department received a report from staff members of the Dennis Beach Department that they had pulled a possible drowning victim from the water at Mayflower Beach.

Multiple personnel from the Dennis Police and Fire Departments responded to the beach and while in route were updated that there was a total of three possible drowning victims. Once at the beach, three female victims were identified as having been pulled from the water in various stages of medical distress and each was transported to Cape Cod Hospital by the Dennis Fire Department.

The three female victims were 45, 15 and 11 years old.

A Dennis Police Detective who responded to the hospital interviewed two of the three and was able to determine that the three had been swimming and gotten to a point where they couldn’t get back to shore. The weather conditions at the beach included a strong offshore wind and higher than normal surf conditions. All three victims were conscious and alert when the Detective left Cape Cod Hospital, and the department has received no further updates Friday on their medical condition, nor has the department received notification that any of the victim’s conditions worsened overnight.

The Dennis Beach Department lifeguards who responded to rescue the victims were alerted to the three being in distress when the youngest victim waved for help from the water. Three lifeguards on two surfboards/rescue boards immediately went into the water and made their way out to the victims, where they loaded the victims onto the two boards and brought them all to shore.

Two of the victims needed immediate lifesaving treatment which was started by Dennis Beach Department staff members and aided by civilian medical professionals and others on the beach who came forward to help.