A remarkable video that has gone viral on social media shows a Florida family reuniting with a loved one who was lost at sea for hours after being swept away while scuba diving.
A friend called the cousin of the missing Dylan Gartenmayer around 5:45 pm on January 19 after two hours of searching for the 22-year-old off the coast of Key West with no luck.
“They told us it went under and didn’t resurface. So we thought the worst,” Priscilla Gartenmayer told Storyful. She and her boyfriend frantically pulled out her grandparents’ boat and set sail for the area where Dylan’s friends last saw him.
There was no sign of him as the sun continued to set. Priscilla, familiar with the area, thought that her cousin would try to swim to a nearby reef if she saw it, but the reef was more than two miles away, located off Boca Chica Key.
MICHIGAN FIREFIGHTERS TAKE A MAN TO A MOMENT OF SAFETY BEFORE TRAIN PURGES INTO OVERTURNED JEEP: VIDEO
A strong current swept a 22-year-old diver away from his boat. His family pulls him out of the icy water and hugs the man they feared they had lost.
(Priscilla Gartenmayer via Storyful)
“Before we even brought the boat to a complete stop to start searching, Joel Cruz [Gartenmayer’s boyfriend] he saw Dylan near the channel marker marking that reef,” he said. “The joy we felt at that moment is indescribable.”
The video shows Dylan being hugged by his family as he is brought on board. “Oh Dylan! Oh my gosh you did it! Oh gosh Dylan!” can be heard. The family wept tears of relief and joy.
CALIFORNIA WOMAN TREATS HER PIG LIKE HER SON, GOES VIRAL ON TIKTOK
“Oh Dylan! Oh my gosh you did it! Oh gosh Dylan!” can be heard in the now-viral sea rescue video.
(Priscilla Gartenmayer via Storyful)
“Shortly after, the Coast Guard came and picked him up to check his vital signs. His core temperature was slightly low, but other than that, he was perfectly fine.” Gartenmayer said. “Later we were able to pick Dylan up from the Coast Guard station and take him home.”
Dylan was free diving when the current carried him underwater. When he surfaced, he was unable to locate the boat that he had been in with two other men. He swam to the buoys that marked the reef and clung on for life.
The buoys marking the reef where Dylan Gartenmayer clung on for life before being rescued by his family.
(Priscilla Gartenmayer via Storyful)
CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“The water temperature was around 78 degrees, according to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, And while that temperature sounds warm, hypothermia can occur. A swimmer can succumb to exhaustion and even lose consciousness in as little as three hours submerged, according to the Coast Guard Auxiliary,” reports FOX Weather.
