Ward Secretary tells story of saving 3 children from drowning while swimming at Cua Lo beach

On the morning of August 1, Mr. Nguyen Van Trung - Secretary of the Nghi Hai Ward Party Committee (Cua Lo town), said that the families of the children he saved from drowning came to his house to thank him. Mr. Trung was the one who single-handedly saved 3 out of 6 children who drowned while swimming at Cua Lo beach.

Talking to Nghe An Newspaper reporter, Mr. Trung said that early on Saturday morning, July 30, he and his family went to Cua Lo beach to swim. At about 6:15 am, while swimming, he heard many children's cries for help from afar. "At first, I thought the children were joking with each other. But the second time I heard the cries for help, I looked out and saw someone waving, so I swam out. The area where the children drowned was about 200 meters from the shore," Mr. Trung said.

Mr. Trung recounts the process of saving drowning children. Photo: TH

When he got there, the first person Mr. Trung met was a female student (he later found out she had just finished grade 12). "At that time, I saw that this girl also knew how to swim and was already grown up, so I just told her to try harder and swim to shore. So I ignored her to save the younger children who were screaming," Mr. Trung said, adding that in addition to the 6 children, there was also a father who also knew how to swim. But he alone was not strong enough to handle and save all the children who were struggling.

Mr. Trung then reached for a child about 10 years old to bring him to shore. After swimming for a few dozen meters, he realized that this child was still strong, while outside there was another group about to sink into the water. He encouraged this child to calm down and struggle while he went out to save the other children. "At that time, the other child kept begging, 'Please don't let me go'. I was quite hesitant. But I still decided to let him go and go back to save the other 3 children who were in more danger," Mr. Trung added.

Swimming back to where the three children were drowning, Mr. Trung quickly used his hands to lift each child out of the water so they could breathe. "I didn't hug or hold them, I just gently lifted each child up so they could breathe. At the same time, I had to constantly encourage them to stay calm and stop screaming. Just like that, I swam, lifted and pushed the three children to shore," Mr. Trung said.

When he rescued the three children to shore, Mr. Trung was almost exhausted. But he still shouted for Mr. Tran Quoc Tuan - Secretary of Nghi Hoa Ward Party Committee and a friend who was swimming nearby to swim out to rescue the 10-year-old child who was struggling not far from shore. In the other two cases, a female student who had just finished 12th grade swam to shore by herself. But when she arrived, she fainted due to drinking too much water and had to be taken to the hospital for emergency treatment. The remaining case was rescued by her father to shore. The total rescue time for the victims was about 15 minutes.

Currently the health of the 6 children has stabilized.