Mermaids Rescue Scuba Diver Drowning Off The Coast Of California
Three mermaids saved a scuba diver’s life off the coast of California, in a story that sounds akin to a fairytale.
The rescue happened when Josh Claramunt was scuba diving with his father and his father’s best friend during a trip to Catalina Island. While diving, Calramunt’s father, Avila, lost consciousness and needed immediate help.
On that same day, Elle Jimenez, a professional mermaid performer and diver from Miami, was teaching an advanced mermaid course certified by the Professional Association of Diving Instructors.
On her blog, Jimenez explained: “We imagined diving in the gorgeous kelp forest in Catalina, and taking mermaid photos after my students passed the open water session of the course. In this open water session they would show me their mermaid diving skills including their duck dives, backflips among other fun tricks and the mermaid rescue drill.”
As we all know, life doesn’t always go as planned. Partway through the day of training in open water, Jimenez heard a cry for help and she and her fellow mermaids jumped into action.
The trio swam to Claramunt and his father, Pablo Avila, and their friend. When they got there, Avila was unconscious in the water.
Jimenez wrote on her blog, “Elaina got to the victim first where she noticed foam was coming out of the 70ish year old gentleman who was unconscious. Chin and I arrived at the scene about 2 seconds after when we saw Elaina giving the victim rescue breaths at the surface. That image was one I will never forget and it impacted me in a way so deeply, I know at that moment this was a real life-death situation.”
The mermaids began removing the heavy scuba gear from Avila’s body while performing rescue breaths.
The other two men were understandably panicked and one even began to hyperventilate. Jimenez realized the situation could quickly turn from bad to worse if she didn’t get the group back to shore, so they began working to get all three men safely out of the open water.
A photo of the moment was captured by Native Productions.
Once back on shore, EMTs arrived and performed CPR on Pablo who wasn’t breathing and didn’t have a pulse. Jimenez shared on her blog, “After what seemed forever, they finally got a pulse. This must’ve been about 20 minutes from the moment the divers surfaced to the moment Pablo got his heart beating again. They transported Pablo to a decompression chamber. The EMT credited us mermaids for saving Pablo’s life, had it not been for Elaina’s rescue breaths and the team’s effort to get everyone on shore safely, the outcome could’ve been completely different.”
All three women were recognized as heroes and interviewed by several news stations, including Inside Edition. Check out the video below:
