Hero Joe, 13, saves his dad’s life at sea
SON DIVED INTO FREEZING WATER TO DRAG FATHER TO SAFETY ON A ROCK
AN astonishingly brave teenager saved his dad’s life after their kayak capsized at sea.
Firefighter Paul Rowlands and his 13-year-old son, Joe, were forced to swim to a rock but the 50-year-old dad fell unconscious in the freezing water.
Joe, who reached the rock before his dad, dived back in and managed to drag him to safety. He carried out chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation before Paul regained consciousness and spat out water.
After two-and-a-half hours huddled together, they were winched to safety from the rock by a coastguard helicopter off the coast of Anglesey, north Wales.
The rescue was filmed in dramatic footage taken by the crew from Moelfre lifeboat station for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.
Reliving the drama off Lligwy beach, Paul, a station manager at Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service, said Joe told him he thought they would die as they made the decision to jump from the sinking kayak.
“Although I reassured him that we were going to be fine, the thought also crossed my mind and I literally feared for both our lives,” Paul, who lives with his family in Cheshire, said.
“Our only chance of survival was to leave the craft and swim to a rock that was sticking out of the sea approximately halfway between us and the shoreline, which was some half-a-mile away.”
He recalled passing out several times in the water along the way. His final memories were seeing Joe sat on the rock in front of him around 100 metres away, and thinking that his son was safe. It emerged later that after reviving his dad Joe started to shout at him to keep him awake as hyperthermia set in and managed to get them to a small island with a disused open tower previously built for shipwrecked sailors. They took shelter there before alerting rescuers to their position from the tower.
Paul’s wife Julie Ann, Joe’s mum, raised the alarm from the shore and the pair were both unhurt in the incident on February 22.
Paul thanked the RNLI and said: “Without this resource both myself and Joe wouldn’t be here today so I can’t thank them enough.
“Joe also saved my life that day and was extremely courageous in a life and death situation. I know I can never really repay him for saving my life and I’m extremely proud of him.”