SHOULD YOU WEAR A LIFE VEST IN THE SURF?
July 4, 1999

Ask William "Big Wilbur" Holt

The story may not have made it around to all my fishing buddies so an up front, "Sorry" if it didn't make it to you.  I try to pass it along to everyone I can.  I figure if it gets at least one person to pause for a second and think about safety BEFORE those big fish (I know it's tough), it'll make the ordeal worth the pain.

On July 4th this summer I had a near fatal accident while surf fishing in relatively good conditions.  Just a quirk of nature and a number of things that coincided to cause the whole thing.

I was standing in knee to mid-thigh depth (depending on incoming waves) surf tossing a piggy perch under a popping cork.  I was on the edge of a good cut left from a small squall a few days earlier.  Tide was going out but the surface current was running in faster so I was, for the most part, facing shore casting into the cut and letting the surface current carry the bait
into the cut.

I had been standing for a while and my feet had sank a few inches from the water washing the sand out.  I went to take a step out of the holes and get back on flat sand but stumbled, fell and landed on my posterior.  When I stood up I was in chest deep water.  I wasn't really alarmed.  I've been surf fishing all my life and these things happen.  I just stood there watching my line hoping the sudden surge may have attracted Mr. Fishy's attention.  No such luck.  Generally when I get that deep it's impossible to just walk in so I hop towards shore in the bottom of each swell.  I noticed after a couple of hops that I was heading out instead of in.  It startled me but didn't alarm me.  On the next hop attempt I didn't move at all.  I jumped at the same time a rip caught my feet.  Now we all know we're not supposed to panic in these situations but the rip held me firm and the next wave crashed over my head so, I panicked.  After mentally chastising myself for panicking I tried to get up on the surface to ride the rip out and swim around it back to shore.  No dice.  The rip had my feet, pulling me down and out and the surface current had my upper body trying to push it towards shore. 

This little wave combo effectively held me in place and bent me over at the waist.  Well, the adrenaline pumped in and I was able to break loose and get to the surface but, it was too late.  I had already panicked, I was breathing hard, heart rate was elevated and I was still fighting the current.  I was pushing as hard as I could to ride up the swell and yell for help at the peak of each one.  It was late in the day and the beach was basically deserted.  My wife (Jean Ann) and Jeff's wife, Linda, had gone back over the dunes to get something (RV park was just on the other side) Jeff was goofing around on the beach and I was fighting being pulled out and down.

This next part really puts a cold hand around my heart, even now, almost 5 months after it happened.  No matter how many times I talk about it, no matter how many more days are between today and the accident, I still shudder and get a case of anxiety for a few minutes, as I have right now just thinking about it.  I just have to get out for some air and calm down then I'm OK, but it's still that sharp in my mind and probably always will be.  On to what happened....

I'm a fighter by nature.  Tell me it can't be done and I'll figure out how to do it.  Tell me it's too hard and I'll find the way.  Defeat doesn't come easy to me, never has.  I don't give up, period!!  Just ask my wife when the remote has been misplaced.  8-)  But I was at my limit out there.  I couldn't move my arms or legs, I was staying under longer and longer with each passing wave.  It was all I had to try and dolphin, (swim like one) back to the surface.  The last time I broke the surface the shore was a distant sight and I knew that when I went under this time I wouldn't be coming back up.  I thought of my wife of only 6 months, my 2 kids (previous marriage), my Parents, my Sister, my Friends and the hell this was going to put them through.  I prayed to God.  I asked Him to take me home to be with Him quickly and to have mercy on everyone, not to let them suffer too hard or hurt too long.  Let them know that I had gone to be with Him and that they must go on.  I said my peace and prayed that He would show Jean Ann the way to forgive me for leaving her so soon after we had started our lives together.  I knew, in my heart, that I was going to die.  It wasn't fear that came over me, it was sadness and pain, emotional pain.  Knowing I'd never see the ones that meant the most to me ever again.  At almost the exact moment I gave up and began to slide beneath the surface somebody popped over the next wave.  He had to pull me back up.  Even seeing him, I couldn't muster the strength to push one more time.  I remember him pulling me up by shoving his fingers in my mouth, then putting his arm around my neck and asking me my name... then everything went black. 

I have flashes of the events that followed but no real memory.  Everything from here on has been told to me by someone.  There were actually 2 guys, lifeguards, off-duty, goofing off on the beach before heading home.  They put their lives in extreme danger to bring me in.  I was told that they both collapsed as soon as the others took me from them once I was in more shallow water.  Luckily, I think, Jean Ann didn't get back until they already had me out of the water.  She was hysterical enough from coming back when I was already out.  I'd hate to think what it would have done to her if she was there to witness the whole thing. 

A fairly large group had gathered by the time they got me out of the water. Another friend that was there with us was about to make a run for me, while I was still out there, when someone grabbed him, held him back and told him that there was no sence in he and I both drowning.  I'm not a gym guy that works out a lot but I'm in pretty good shape and have kept myself that way over the years.  Manny runs consistently and is in better shape than I.  The fact that 2 young, trained life guards in top shape were on the verge on not making it in and collapsed when they did make it in, leads me to believe that the guy was 99% right that neither of us would have made it back.

Apparently EMS (Emergency Medical Services) was in the area and was on the beach in a matter of minutes. When they went to work on me my blood pressure was 60 over 20, no pulse rhythm and I was crashing fast.  They loaded me into the ambulance, Jeff shoved Jean Ann in but they wouldn't let anyone else come along.  She told me that the EMS tech's eyes told her the whole story.  She made eye contact with the tech and he looked away.  He didn't think I would make it to the hospital.  Thankfully, he was wrong.  They were pumping my veins full of something.  I had a total of 5 IV's in at one time.  They had a mask on me and were pumping pure oxygen as fast as it would go.  Oddly enough, they never did CPR nor did they intebate (sp?) me (hose down the throat).  They probably thought it was a waste of time. 

Well, they got me to the Hospital, cut off my favorite shorts and left my soaking wet, hysterical wife in the waiting area and wouldn't let her come back with me.  I don't know what they did but I do know The BIG GUY was helping them along because I was sitting up and talking 30 minutes after I was brought in.  The nurses were not the most pleasant of people, especially considering that I had been dead a few minutes before.  They would not let Jean Ann come into where I was, they wouldn't let me have something to drink.  I asked for a Dr Pepper and got a resounding, "NO!" then asked for water...still, "NO!", plus they seemed miffed at the slightest request or even question about what had happened.  The Doc that worked on me came up and I first thanked him a hundred times over for the work he and his crew as well as the EMF folks did to keep me around then I expressed my displeasure at what was going on with everything else.  Within minutes I had my wet, bawling wife at my side and a cold DP in my hand.  The relief combined with how fast everything had transpired was too much for her.  From the time they pulled me out to the time I was sitting up was under an hour.  We stay at the Pioneer RV Park just outside of Port A towards Corpus and the hospital was in Corpus.  The Ambulance driver told me that the speedometer only went to 95 so she wasn't too sure how fast we were actually going.  I wonder if we caught a little air off the top of the causeway??  Anyway, I was awake, coherent and showed no signs of ever being hurt. 

My entire body felt as though I'd been severely beaten by several large persons with blunt objects.  I was doing my best not to let it show while Jean Ann was in there but it was tough.  Doc explained that my blood had gone toxic from oxygen deprivation and was actually poisoning my body.  It had been systematically shutting down my body.  Muscles first then organs, in the order of least importance to my body working it's way to finally, my brain. Doc said it had definitely gone passed the muscle stage (he said it was a big part of why I lost muscle control so fast during the actual event) but wouldn't know about major organs until later.  They kept me over night then released me the next morning.  We stayed at the RV park for a few days because the Doc didn't want me too far away in case something went wrong.  He was worried about secondary infection and organ failure.  Luckily I had neither and we went home where I was ordered to bed rest for 5 straight days.  I balked at first but by the time we got home I had the "been beaten" feeling again.  My local Doc loaded me up with pain killers so I wouldn't expend energy on the pain that my body needed for healing over the next week.

When I was in a recovery room, before I was transferred into ICU, I had a chance to talk, alone, with the EMF folks and my doctor.  The EMF walked around the corner and almost choked on her coffee when she caught sight of me.  We talked for a while and she said that she had never, in 10 years of EMS, seen anyone recover from being that far gone, certainly not sitting on a gurney drinking a soda.  That kinda freaked me out so I asked Doc and he pretty much said the same thing.  He said that generally, once a your body falls to a certain point there is a lot of exterior help needed (stuff that they didn't have to do to me) to get it back on track.  I suffer from migraines and, of course, had an attack after being put in ICU.  I'd guess it was a little stress related.  My ICU RN was great.  He immediately pumped me full of Demerol (what I have to get occasionally for the bad ones) to avoid it progressing.  Every time the Demerol would wear off the headache would come back so he'd load me up again.  Great guy.  Once the headache finally went away I was able to thank him for his "beyond the call of duty" efforts (as far I thought, anyway).  As we got to talking I found out that he's been a ICU/Trauma RN for 20+ years.  He too was amazed at the fact that I was even alive, much less coherent.  He said the same about recovering from that far gone and went on to say that he'd seen people nowhere near my stage who's bodies continued to crash despite their all out effort.

I figured that they were all trying to put the scare in me for not wearing a Life Vest but when I went to my local doc, he confirmed it.  He said that there was absolutely no reason for me to be alive but since I was, he would do his best to help me stay that way.

I haven't suffered any major long term ill effects from the accident with one exception.  I've had a nagging cold/flu off and on since then.  It didn't dawn on me until recently that it started after my accident.  Last week, when I went in yet again with flu symptoms, my Doc tracked it back and confirmed.  Seems like it dawned on both of us at the same time.  He seems to think that I may have an infection in my lungs that the normal antibiotics would knock down but not kill.  Then, after a week or so of being off the antibiotics, I'd start getting flu-like symptoms again.  We're in the process of blood and X-ray work to see if anything abnormal shows up. So far, nothing major.  (knock on wood)

The guys that pulled me out disappeared into the crowd once they knew I was in good hands.  It took a while but, with the help of a few of the folks on the FNN, they were tracked down.  As I figured, they were shying away from the spotlight and didn't want to draw a lot of attention to themselves.  I understood completely.  They, nor do I think they saved me for recognition and atta boys by a ton of people, but because they felt compelled to do everything they could to save a faceless stranger.  I put a small blurb on the FNN message board about them, expressing my thanks and giving them a little lime light letting others know of their selfless act, while trying not to make a big production out of it, for their sake.  I sent them each a letter of gratitude and let them know that what they did WAS something special and not just "part of the job."  I also told them that, as far as I was concerned, they were angels that God put on that beach for a reason.

I guess I haven't finished what He wants me to finish just yet.  I'm hoping that the finishing involves an IGFA record or two!!

Sorry again for the length and you take care,

William "Big Wilbur" Holt

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