By Jamie Biggs
The Courier Tribune
ASHEBORO, N.C. — Jared Byrd, Emergency Managment Coordinator with Randolph County Emergency Services, proved that first-responders are never off-duty when he helped to save the life of a drowning man while on vacation last week.
According to a statement in the Weekly Situation Report from RCES, Maj. Byrd was on vacation with his family at Sunset Beach when he witnessed an elderly man trying to rescue his three grandchildren from a riptide Saturday.
While trying to save his grandchildren, the man drowned. Byrd and his stepdad, Thomas Brown, a former Randolph County paramedic and current nurse, took action.
They retrieved the man from the water and began to perform CPR until Fire/Rescue units from Sunset Beach arrived on scene. By the time units were leaving to transport the man to the hospital, he had a pulse.
Hours later, the man was alert, sitting up and talking.
“It was just being at the right place at the right time,” Byrd said Tuesday.
Byrd stated that he had just met up with his family on the beach, including his mother who is also a nurse, when they noticed the man.
“It was a team effort for sure,” he said, adding that four or five people took turns performing CPR on the victim, who was released from the hospital the next day, according to Byrd.
“We have people here who are doing this every day,” Byrd said, referring to the first-responders at Randolph County Emergency Services. “Anybody in our field would have done the same.”
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