Hero In Our Midst Rescues Little Girl ... and he kites and free dives!

[ricki]

Lots of us have kited with Tom Dunfee over the years. He came along to wind wait in anticipation of demo'ing kiting to about five million people at the Air Sea Show years back in Ft. Lauderdale.



Look at all those white caps, wind is honking ... somewhere else!



He likes free diving as demonstrated in this blue hole in a recent trip to the OUT, out islands of the Bahamas with Kent and Paula. He is one of the first guys to come out in a white top.


What a lot of us may not know about are his adept and heroic efforts as a Fire Fighter/Paramedic. Kent Marinkovic with Cabrinha filled me in on things. Tom fell into the national spot light earlier this week during the rescue of a 3 year old girl from a swimming pool. Her arm was vacuumed into a scupper and held fast. If her mom hadn't held her head above water she might have drowned. Emergency Services were called who responded in force along with three news camera choppers buzzing around overhead on Key Biscayne. I think Tom is the guy in the red hardhat and grey shirt. He was the guy I understand who pulled her arm out, still surrounded by a section of pipe from the partially demolished pool wall.


Some video and news articles appear below.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNWMHVRLNt0
Raw AP video with the best coverage


http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/...n5264319.shtml
National newscast with commentary

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miam...y/1200956.html


Tom received a commendation in another rescue for bringing a heart attack victim back from death while off duty. He noticed this guy go down at a service station, kicked into high gear with CPR and brought the man back. The success rate in CPR under these condition is fairly stark but Tom carried it off!

More at: http://www.keybiscayne.fl.gov/client...1_13_09.vc.pdf

Tom is an excellent guy to have around in an emergency, good kiter and free diver too.

Way to go Tom!

[kiteboardinggear]

Nice one, thanks for sharing