State Park Peace Officer/Lifeguard

Department of Parks and Recreation

10/25/2010

Special Service Award (Silver)

On October 25, 2010, at approximately 3:15 p.m., State Park Peace Officer/Lifeguard Justin S. McHenry responded to a call describing two women caught in the heavy surf at Carmel River State Beach. The two friends had been standing on the beach talking with their backs to the water when a large wave carried them both into the ocean. Officer McHenry arrived on the scene, put on his wetsuit, and spotted one of the women. He knew he couldn’t enter the water directly in front of her due to the dangerous surf, so he ran 100 yards north along the beach and swam out to her. When he reached the 62 year old woman she was physically exhausted. She had been in the 57 degree water for approximately twenty minutes in street clothes and was having a hard time keeping her head above water. Officer McHenry put a rescue tube around her and swam her out beyond the dangerous breaking waves, towing her for 15 minutes while searching for a safe shore. A CAL FIRE Inflatable Rescue Boat arrived and Officer McHenry assisted the woman into the boat. She was transported to the shore, taken to a local hospital by ambulance, and treated for extreme hypothermia and near drowning. After swimming back to the beach, Officer McHenry continued a visual search for the second victim, but unfortunately, she perished in the heavy surf.