Swimmer in Saturday’s incident succumbs

The young man who was pulled unconscious from the water off Madison Park Beach on Saturday has died, according to Harborview Medical Center spokesperson Mary Guiden. The victim, who was in his early 20s, was found floating submerged in the water near the diving platform on Saturday evening, less than an hour after the beach’s lifeguards had ended their shift. According to reports, Good Samaritans began CPR on the man before the arrival of police and fire emergency crews, whose efforts to revive him extended for at least 20 minutes, both on the platform and the road-end pier. He was unconscious when transported to the hospital, and he apparently never regained consciousness. The man's name has not been released for reasons of family privacy.

There were media reports on Saturday that the victim was discovered after someone dove off the diving platform and felt a body in the water underneath him. Several swimmers successfully maneuvered the man onto the platform while watchers on the beach apparently called 911. There were still hundreds of beach goers, swimmers, and passersby in the vicinity when the incident occurred. The arrival of multiple emergency vehicles brought many more onlookers to watch the efforts of the EMS personnel. Surprisingly, I am told that no media have followed up with Harborview or the SFD to find out what happened to the man. Those of us who witnessed the sobering scene, however, are unlikely to forget it.

This is apparently the first drowning at Madison Park beach since August 2007, when a man’s body was found floating in the water off of Madison Park. In that case, the man’s clothing and a suicide note were later found on the beach. The drowning on Saturday is believed to be accidental, and the police confirm that there is no on-going investigation.

Several blog readers have commented negatively on the huge police and fire response to this incident. There was a similar reaction by some last year when a girl fell into the water from the diving platform and was apparently knocked unconscious (see the story here). Multiple fire and police vehicles rushed to the scene then, just as happened last weekend. There’s good reason for this huge response in the case of a possible drowning, according to Fire Department spokesperson Dana Vander Houwen. The rule, she told me, is that there must be at least seven responders who are trained in CPR. The reason for this is that CPR is physically exhausting to perform over an extended time, as may be necessary in drowning cases. Anyone watching the performance of the emergency crews on Saturday can attest to that.

Update: The Seattle Times on Tuesday reported that the dead swimmer was a 25-year-old South Korean student named Ahn Hyo Yun.

[Madison Park beach is located at 1900 43rd Avenue E.]