Rescue an act of God
Published: July 6, 2007
CURRUMBIN girl Chantelle Cowham has been dubbed a hero by lifeguards after dragging 15-year-old surfer Jake Miller from the water in what she called an act of God.
“God sent me there,” said the 20-year-old hairdresser, who dragged the teenager from the surf after spotting him floating lifelessly in the shallows yesterday about 5pm.
“It was totally weird, it was fate.
“I never go for a walk along Currumbin Beach. I usually always go to Burleigh headland and I was on my way there when for some reason I decided to go to Currumbin instead.”
Ms Cowham said when she first spotted Jake floating face down in the water she ‘thought it was a kid playing some kind of a joke’.
But she soon realised the situation was serious when she saw he was still attached to the leg-rope of his Mt Woodgee surfboard.
“I looked around me and I just thought ‘oh my God, there’s no one else on the beach’ so I ran in to the water,” she said.
“He was so heavy and I just kept trying to drag him up.
“There was no pulse and he wasn’t breathing, he was dead and I was freaking out.”
It was then that Ms Cowham believes God really stepped in when nurse Sonya Swann came running to her aid and began performing CPR.
Mrs Swann, a nurse for 22 years, had just finished booking a dinner reservation at Currumbin Surf Life Saving Club when she said a man came running up asking her to call an ambulance.
“I’m on holiday here with my family from Coolum Beach and I just dialled 000, gave him the phone and ran to the girl who was with the surfer,” she said.
“I didn’t have much hope for him so I just did what I could.
“The girl was saying ‘he felt dead, he was so heavy’ and then the lifeguards came and I continued using their equipment.”
After working on him for 10 minutes with lifeguards Steve Madden and Chris Maynard, Mrs Swann said Jake’s vitals returned with the ambulance officers administering the final lifesaving treatment.
“I reckon it’s a miracle. He’s a really lucky boy,” she said.
“I would like to catch up with him and see if he’s all right.”
Mr Maynard, who is the lifeguard superintendent, was one of the first lifeguards on the scene and said the passers-by who came to Jake’s rescue were ‘heroes’.
“We were not sure if he would make it for a while there but we found a slight, weak pulse and just kept going,” he said.
“He was surfing by himself and the shore break was dumping pretty hard.
“There were not a lot of people around, so luckily he was seen and that there was a nurse and lifeguards on hand to help.”
Southern lifeguard controller Peter Miller said the family lived across the road from the beach and Jake’s grandfather rushed to the scene after seeing a news flash about a near-drowning incident and realised that his grandson had not returned home.
It is believed Jake was hit on the head by his surfboard.
Mr Miller said Jake had regained consciousness as he was taken from the beach by ambulance officers.
He was in a stable condition at Tweed Heads hospital last night.
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