‘Traumatized’: Rescuers recount pulling former Beaufort mayor from water Saturday
Editor’s note: The most recent developments are included in an updated story you can read by clicking here.
For Lexie Murray Benton, a registered nurse in Colleton County, Saturday was meant to be spent celebrating. Instead, the group of boaters ended up pulling two men, identified later as former Beaufort Mayor Billy Keyserling and his brother Paul, from the water.
“When we got into Beaufort we came across a sailboat fixing to sink,” Benton wrote in a public post on Facebook. “We all stopped to try to help the two men and get them into our boat. The current was really strong and it was tough trying to get close to them.”
Benton and a group of friends were out on the Beaufort River on three boats headed to the Skull Creek Boathouse for her husband Charlie’s birthday, she said in a phone interview Monday. One of the boats, according to Benton, was lagging behind and called them for help after they had come across a capsized sailboat with two men, the Keyserlings, clinging to its side.
“We figured that everyone had already made it to get the help, but we were going to turn around and see if anybody needed anything,” Benton said. “It’s a good thing we did, because we were the only ones to stop and help.”
The brothers had been sailing when the boat they were on capsized in heavy wind, a representative for the family told an Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette reporter on Sunday. The boat capsized between the dock at Beaufort Memorial Hospital and the Beaufort Yacht Club, said Ross Vezin, a spokesperson for the City of Beaufort/Town of Port Royal Fire Department.
The S.C. Department of Natural Resources is investigating the incident, according to spokesperson Greg Lucas.
When Benton and her friends arrived, it seemed like “nobody was in distress,” according to Benton.
“For some reason, Billy went under,” she said. “Paul said it was because he was maybe going to cut the sails. … When he came up, he started vomiting water and his head flopped facedown and Paul said, ‘We’ve got to get him out of the water.’”
‘It all happened so fast’
Two friends who were with Benton, Mikey Convington and Chris Jarrell, jumped in the water to hold Billy Keyserling up. At the time, she and her friends had no idea who the two men were.
“At that point, he (Billy Keyserling) was unresponsive,” she said. “He vomited for a couple of seconds and then he completely went blue.”
A family representative said Paul Keyserling was uninjured while his brother “took in a lot of water” while trying to right the boat.
Tara Hodges, the office manager at the City of Beaufort/Town of Port Royal Fire Department, was out on the river that day with her husband, Phillip, and the two were able to pull up next to the boat and get Billy Keyserling out of the water.
Without the help of the Hodges family, the group “would not have had a good outcome at all,” Benton said.
“It all happened so fast,” Hodges said. “(Paul) was distraught, but he wasn’t hurt.”
Once they were able to bring him aboard, Benton began CPR. She and another medical professional with the group, Ashley Higgins, administered chest compressions as they headed toward the docks at BMH.
“They’re (Covington and Jarrell) traumatized, truly,” Benton said. “They just started crying. … I do this for my day job and it still was traumatic.”
‘He’s responsive’
For Lt. Clint Holmes, who has been with the City of Beaufort/Town of Port Royal Fire Department for 10 years, hearing a call over dispatch about someone heading toward the hospital’s docks is not unusual this time of year. After Memorial Day, the firefighters respond approximately once a weekend to various injury calls, he said.
When he rallied his team, made up of Lt. Trey Carter and firefighters D.J. Henry and Zach Painter, to go take a look at what was going on, they had minimal information and were told simply that one of the people involved “didn’t look good.”
“Drowning is not as often as you think,” said Carter. “I’ve probably been to about five or six in 13 years.”
The winds that day were about 15 to 20 mph.
With binoculars and from his vantage point on the hospital’s helipad, Holmes said he could see Higgins performing chest compressions as the boat headed towards the dock. At that point, he said he knew they needed a unit from Beaufort County EMS.
Following the flurry of activity and first responders surrounding Billy Keyserling came a moment of relief, according to Hodges.
“We’re doing all of this, and we all of a sudden hear one guy say, ‘We’ve got a pulse; we’ve got a pulse,’” she said. “And it was, like, amazing the second we heard it.”
Billy Keyserling was“recovering well” as of Sunday, according to City of Beaufort Mayor Stephen Murray.
“He’s responsive and aware of what’s going on,” the family’s representative said.
“I’m thankful for the good Samaritans, first responders, and BMH team that came to Keyserling’s aid,” Murray said. “He’s surrounded by family and recovering well. Please join me by keeping him in your thoughts for a full and speedy recovery.”
‘Never been a higher honor’
Billy Keyserling served three terms after first being elected in 2008. He was reelected without opposition in both 2012 and 2016. In 2020, Keyserling chose not to run, and Murray was elected.
Before his years as Beaufort’s mayor, Keyserling had a 16-year career in Washington working for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. It wasn’t until he was elected mayor, however, that he found his “voice,” Keyserling previously told the Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette.
“It’s been a fabulous ride for me,” Keyserling said. “There’s never been a higher honor than to serve as the mayor of my hometown, to feel productive, but most importantly to be part of a team.”
This story was originally published May 23, 2022 at 11:18 AM.
