The last thing Jimmy Tarrant and Will Mavin expected to do was to save a life. An incident occurred when they took a trip to Little Lawn Beach to collect capelin. They watched 56-year old David Edwards walk into the water with his dip net.

Life-saving act

When they looked again, the man was floating face down in the water. He was drowning and he must go out and help him. Mavin could not swim well. He started to panic and found his dip net floating in the water and managed to reach far enough to hold him and drag him out.

Edmonton first aid — While performing CPR on Edwards, he spotted 3 people up the beach and waved for help.

The beach was like quicksand. It was difficult hauling the man on shore. They managed to get him far enough out of the water. CPR was delivered for 4-5 minutes but no response at all. The site where Mavin and Tarrant dragged Edwards was still too dangerous to properly perform CPR.

The waves washed up and over Edwards which causes Tarrant to raise Edwards head up to avoid water inhalation from the bigger waves. While performing CPR on Edwards, he spotted 3 people up the beach and waved for help. Since he was uncertain if they saw him, he had to go to them.

Timely action

Jim stayed with Edwards. As Mavin walked across the beach to get more help, Tarrant continued with the chest compressions, regularly lifting Edward’s shoulder to prevent water from entering his mouth. After a few tense minutes, Tarrant heard Edwards take a deep breath.

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