New Jersey

New Jersey Beachgoers Rush to the Rescue of 2 Drowning Women: Witnesses

Beachgoers came to the rescue of two drowning women at a New Jersey beach on Monday, witnesses say.

Avon-by-the-Sea will not have full-time lifeguards on duty until the season kicks off June 20. So a dramatic rescue of two young women, both 21, was up to onlookers at the beach.

“There were two girls that were by the rocks,” Jennifer Ramirez of Fort Lee said. “They were yelling they were drowning.”

Some beachgoers race to help the women, identified as Nisha Desai, of Woodland Park, and Perle Desir, of Linden, pulling them out of the water and onto the beach, video shows.

Carin Diaz was among the good Samaritans who helped. Diaz, a medical assistant, said she didn't have time to think.

"They weren't responding. I grabbed one of the girls, I put her on top of my chest, and just swam back and kept going," Diaz said. "Stay with me, you gotta stay alive. Don't die on me." 

"The medical in me kicked in, the mother instinct also kicked in," she said. 

“Apparently they got caught in a riptide,” witness Ed Collins of Neptune City said. “The girl who was on the rocks had one of the girls by her hand and she says she flew off the riptide.”

Beach medics arrived quickly for help and brought both women to Jersey Shore University Medical Center.

“They started doing mouth-to-mouth,” Ramirez said. “One of them responded in about three to four seconds. The other one they just kept trying and then they just took them out.”

The condition of the women was not immediately clear Tuesday.

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