‘Did what I had to do’: Man helps save boy struggling to swim in Boca Inlet
By Sooji Nam
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BOCA RATON, Florida (WPBF) — Seth Stern shoots social media videos at the Boca Inlet every weekend for work, but this past Sunday was unlike any other.
“My parental instincts took over, and I just went for it,” Stern told WPBF 25 News.
“Couple of weeks ago, I was here filming the kids dump the trash in the ocean, and here it is, I’m doing my job again. I happen to look back, and I notice a young man really struggling in the ocean. He was flailing his arms, yelling for help,” he said. “The kid was going underwater numerous times. I yelled for him to swim to me, and his response was, ‘I can’t, I don’t have enough energy.'”
Without hesitation, Stern, along with two other people nearby, jumped into the water.
“I’m not Michael Phelps by any stretch here, but I’m a pretty decent swimmer, and that current was really ripping me,” he said.
The group then helped pull the boy out of the water. Ocean Rescue crews rushed to help treat him.
“That extra minute or two in the water could have cost the kid his life. For me, it felt like an eternity in the water,” he added.
“What these guys did here on the weekend, they’re definitely heroes. The world needs more people like Seth Stern,” Jason Bennardini of Sfloridaboats, who also helped pull the boy out of the water, told WPBF 25 News.
Stern is a father of two young boys. So, he knew he had to do whatever it took to save that swimmer’s life.
“I have hundreds of cuts all over my hands, my legs, all over my body. The bottom of my feet hurt. But quite honestly, if that’s the price to pay to save a life, I’d do it a million times over,” Stern said.
“I did end up in the hospital with a tetanus shot, strong antibiotic to prevent infection from all that bacteria,” he added.
He hopes this incident could encourage the City of Boca Raton and Palm Beach County to place life preservers and warning signs by the inlet to help protect the community.
WPBF 25 News reached out to Palm Beach County Ocean Rescue for comment and has not yet heard back.
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