‘She wasn’t moving’: Hunting Island lifeguard shares story of dramatic rescue of 3 kids
Lifeguard Ben McHone stood knee-deep in the water off Hunting Island, monitoring a group of kids playing in the ocean in the late afternoon.
The screaming changed tones, McHone said, from that of children playing to “a guttural survival scream.”
Three girls were struggling to swim.
McHone sprang into action, rushing into the water on Aug. 13 in a dramatic rescue of the three young girls. He shared his story on Friday with the Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette newspapers.
“I was trying to develop a plan in my mind while I was getting out there,” McHone said, when reached by phone. “I remember going through the breaking waves and calling on the radio for help.”
‘Everything turned white’
About 4 p.m. that sunny afternoon, the 25-year-old lifeguard, who also works for the Fripp Island Fire Department, swam out.
The children, he said, were 150 yards out from North Beach near the Hunting Island Lighthouse when he reached them.
McHone went against an outgoing tide with 2 1/2-foot waves. A crowd began to form on the beach.
As he swam, he saw one of the girls floating face down in the water.
“She wasn’t moving,” he said. The girl started to sink.
McHone said he handed a flotation device to the two other girls, who were still swimming but screaming, then turned his focus to the unresponsive child. He dove under for her and brought her back to the surface.
The waves kept coming, breaking over their heads and pushing away the flotation device. The two girls hung on to McHone instead.
“At that point I was thinking of survival for everybody. I knew I couldn’t get all three of them onto shore,” McHone said. “The two girls were panicking on top of me, pushing me under, and I was thinking of the girl who couldn’t fend for herself.”
He estimated that he drank about a gallon of sea water while holding all three girls. He concentrated on keeping the unresponsive girl face up.
McHone was dunked underwater again and again, he said, and then “everything turned white.” At that moment a surfer from the beach arrived. He handed off the unresponsive girl to the surfer.
The surfer came back for both children and then McHone.
Scott Harris, a spokesperson for Lady’s Island / St. Helena Fire District, said firefighters arrived at the beach and found “a Hunting Island lifeguard lying just at the water(’s) edge along with several others.”
Firefighters and Beaufort County EMS began assessing the victims and McHone, before loading them into ambulances to Beaufort Memorial Hospital, according to Harris.
The unresponsive girl was flown from the hospital to the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, according to McHone.
Neither Harris nor McHone had any update on the girls’ status at the hospitals, but McHone said he was told they were expected to be OK.
McHone cautioned that adults should always be present if their children are swimming in the ocean. And he asked that inexperienced swimmers stay out of the water.
Had it taken him longer to reach the girls, he said, this would have turned out differently.
“I’ve probably done close to 50 rescues,” McHone said, “But this was by far the most intense.”
This story was originally published August 21, 2021 at 6:30 AM.
