Beaufort’s Billy Keyserling meets the people who saved him. Here’s what he had to say
Billy Keyserling met four of the men and women Thursday who were part of a team that rescued and resuscitated the former Beaufort mayor from the Beaufort River after his boat capsized in May.
Keyserling talked with paramedic Danielle Van Dam, EMT Jordan Lopez and crew chief paramedic Tommy Pike, all with Beaufort County Emergency Medical Services (EMS), who were at his side providing medical care that day.
They also discussed the advanced lifesaving medical procedures they used to revive him.
“It’s remarkable for our personnel to be able to see positive outcomes of the care they provide to individuals,” said Virginia Marshall, a spokesperson for Beaufort County EMS.
Beaufort EMS provided the advanced lifesaving medical procedures, with the assistance of the City of Beaufort/Port Royal Fire Department, after they brought Keyserling to Beaufort Memorial Hospital dock on the Beaufort River. People in two boats, including nurses Lexie Murray Benton and Ashley Higgins, and Tara Hodges, the office manager at the City of Beaufort/Town of Port Royal Fire Department, also were critical in the rescue chain from the river to Beaufort Memorial Hospital.
With many cardiac arrests, Marshall noted, EMT personnel do not get to see the outcome.
“It’s very touching to have that followup and to see how well that individual is doing,” Marshall said of Keyserling’s visit.
Keyserling previously met with Beaufort firefighters who also were part of the team rescue effort.
Keyserling was basically a goner when people reached him May 12 after the cat boat he and his brother Paul were sailing May 21 in the Beaufort River tipped in a gust of wind, sending both men into the water.
“I was blue,” Keyserling previously told the Beaufort Gazette and Island Packet. “My eyes were just sort of staring into nowhere. Totally unresponsive to anything. No pulse. But that team just wouldn’t quit.”
As a result of his experience, Keyserling says he plans to promote the idea of bringing boaters together, perhaps once a year, for CPR training.
It’s criminal, he says, that “we have this water and we use it but we’re not aware of what it can do — and what we can do to make it safer for other people.”
This story was originally published July 22, 2022 at 4:55 AM.
