Her fiancé died suddenly on a Hilton Head beach. Now she met the man who tried to save him
Vacationer Tommy Sipsy was on a Hilton Head beach June 2 when he noticed something.
“As I was approaching the water I’d seen a gentleman to the right of me that it appeared that he was snorkeling,” Sispy said in an interview with The Island Packet. “I look over again and the wave rolls over onto his back. And instantly, I noticed that, so I grabbed him by the arm. I hollered at one of my buddies to come help me and then I hollered at the lifeguard to get 911 responders.”
Jason Kelley, 45, a fellow vacationer and a certified registered nurse anesthetist from Ashland, Kentucky, had collapsed into the water. Sispy and several other bystanders who happened to be medical professionals began to administer CPR and try to help Kelley, but it was too late.
Kelley, who died after suffering a cardiac event, was supposed to get married to his fiancé in less than a month before he passed.
On Wednesday, Sispy and Kelley’s fiancé, Kayla Norris, talked for the first time since the tragic incident happened.
“I just feel so thankful to these people,” Norris said, “everyone that day that, you know, that were fighting for him and trying to save him.”
Since Kelley’s death, Norris also took to Facebook to share the story of his passing.
“It’s a real outlet for me, and I just feel people deserve to know what type of person he was and what he meant to us,” Norris said.
The posts were met with a stream of support from friends and family on social media. One of the users who responded to Norris’ Facebook posts about Kelley was Jaclyn Orlando, a Hilton Head real estate agent, and her husband Town Manager Marc Orlando.
Marc Orlando told Norris he would try to find out who had pulled Kelley out of the water so Norris could speak to them.
“My heart breaks because of her story,” Orlando said. “I know some look at it as a call beyond the call of duty, but it’s what we do. It’s what we should do.”
Orlando reached out to Hilton Head Deputy Fire Chief Chis Blankenship to find out who had tried to help Kelley. Sispy, originally from Marietta, Georgia, and a volunteer firefighter, had given a statement to the Fire Department after June 2.
Norris called Sispy and the two discussed what happened that day.
‘He was one of the kindest individuals’
Norris met Kelley at King’s Daughters Medical Center in Ashland, where they both worked. Norris is also a nurse, and she said they got along well as co-workers. After Kelley wished Norris a happy birthday twice on Facebook, the two began dating.
“Sometimes you meet people and you’re like, ‘I realize everything I’ve gone through in life was to get me to you,’” Norris said.
Kelley proposed to her not long after they began dating, Norris said. He was a “hardworking man,” who volunteered to be on 24-hour notice at the hospital for COVID-19 cases when the pandemic hit.
“Jason had a quirky sense of humor,” said Ashleigh Adkins, a family friend. “He was one of the kindest individuals.”
Norris said Kelley was a father figure to her three children from her previous marriage.
“He just stepped into their lives and was all in. He was their second dad; he was everything to them,” Norris said. “He completed our whole family.”
This story was originally published July 21, 2022 at 12:33 PM.
