By Allison Bruce
Ventura County Star
WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif. — Three people rescued a fellow golfer from drowning at Westlake Golf Course early Saturday morning.
The female golfer had been playing the 13th hole, and it was thought she had been trying to fish her ball out of the course lake when she fell in, said Chris Vatcher, general manager for Westlake Golf Course.
By all accounts, golfer Sunny Kim saved the woman’s life by jumping in the lake and dragging the woman to safety.
Daren O’Neill and Keith Bosecker play the golf course every Saturday. This week, they were paired with Kim and were at the 13th hole when they noticed Kim, teeing up about 100 yards away from them, started to yell and wave her arms.
They had noticed movement in the water of the lake, but had dismissed it as the common splashing of ducks. Kim, however, frantically motioned to them and, as they ran toward her, jumped into the water to get the woman, who was floating face-down.
“I’m really glad Sunny was there and was brave enough to jump in,” O’Neill said.
As O’Neill helped Kim pull the woman out of the water, Bosecker was retrieving his cell phone from his golf bag to call 911.
“We did what you see on TV,” O’Neill said. “We shook her, tapped her face, yelling ‘Wake up! Wake up!’”
He and Bosecker said her face had turned blue and she wasn’t breathing. Though none of them have CPR training, they jumped into what O’Neill called “amateurish chest compressions.”
Then Bosecker began to relay directions from the 911 call, which they followed until paramedics arrived, driving across the golf course to reach them.
The 911 call was made about 8:30 a.m.
When paramedics arrived, the woman had a pulse but had water in her lungs, said Mike Amador, a firefighter and paramedic with the Los Angeles County Fire Department.
The woman, who was unidentified, was treated and taken to Los Robles Hospital & Medical Center. Bosecker said she was talking by the time she was put into the ambulance, which they took as a good sign.
No information was available Saturday on her condition or identify.
Amador said the woman told him she wanted to thank her rescuers. Vatcher said the woman’s daughter came by later in the day to get information on the people who had saved her, because the woman wanted to write them a thank-you note.
Amador said the quick actions of the group saved her life. “They need some recognition for being heroes,” he said.
Copyright 2010 Ventura County Star