Off duty teen lifeguard praised for saving man in Lake Washington
Aug 5, 2012, 10:39 AM | Updated: 11:52 am
An off-duty teenaged lifeguard rescued a 20-year-old man from Lake Washington Saturday night.
Seventeen-year-old Olena Uelese was celebrating a birthday with family on the beach when she saw the unidentified 20-year-old man struggling in the water off of Pritchard Island Beach at 55th Avenue South in Seattle.
According to reports, he had been spending time with friends when he jumped into the water and sank beneath the surface. His friends screamed for help when they saw he didn’t resurface, and Uelese sprang into action.
Uelese jumped into the water and pulled the man to shore after diving down several times to find him. His friends said he had been underwater for five minutes when Uelese brought him up.
Uelese then performed CPR on the victim until paramedics arrived.
Uelese is being praised for her selflessness an quick action, but she says she was just doing her job.
“I’m not going to waste their time of life just for my thoughts of being scared, you know? It’s their life and I’m here, I’m a lifeguard. I’m here to help. So I just had no second thought and I just went for it,” Uelese told KING-5 news.
The unidentified 20-year-old man was taken to Harborview Medical Center in critical condition.
