Did I save a man’s life? He and his wife think so

It felt good to be the first person to jump off the side of the catamaran that had taken me, my wife, and about 40 others from the Couples Negril resort to a small cave we could swim in.

“There are bat's in there that you can see fly around,” someone said.

Shortly after, my wife jumped in, along with a few other friends we met. With our life jackets secured, we swam over to the cave. It was about 30 to 40 feet from the entrance to the back of the cave. The walls were jagged and there was a large rock mound in the middle that you could sit on if the water level was low enough.

To the left, a set of stairs went from the cave to a house located just above.

A few other people made it into the cave before we did, and two guys sat on top of the rock in the middle, while a few others explored the back of the cave.

Then it happened. A strong wave surge came out of nowhere and started to cause chaos inside the cave. The two guys sitting on top of the rock were violently pushed off the rock and toward the back wall. The guy at the back of the cave was pushed up toward the ceiling, his head coming dangerously close to the jagged rocks above.

As I started to swim back, recognizing the danger, I looked to my right and saw a new friend of ours, Ken, get pushed further into the cave. Then I saw his face: panic.

He froze for the moment, unsure of what to do, and clearly in a paralyzing state of fear.

My instinct kicked in. He needed help, especially because if he was knocked unconscious and took on water, I wasn’t sure we could get him back to the boat in time.

I called out his name and quickly swam over to him. “Give me your hand!”

He reached out his right arm and I grabbed it with my right arm. As hard as I could, I pulled him toward me.

“SWIM!” I yelled at him. I grabbed his lifejacket and began to swim away as fast and as hard as I could.

A few seconds later, we were safely outside the cave and Ken was able to process what happened. He was okay and most people were, too. Back on the boat, we learned of the damage. About 10 people had cuts, rock rash and some bruised ribs. Some people needed bandages. Unfortunately, we swam in at the wrong time, as the waters calmed shortly after that.

As we sailed back to the resort and watched the sunset over Seven Mile Beach, Ken and his wife Ronelle were telling the story of what happened.

“He definitely saved me,” Ken said to another group, pointing to me.

I chimed in, “You probably would have been fine, but I wanted to do what I could to help.”

“No, you saved him,” Ronelle chimed in.

Maybe I did, maybe it wasn’t necessary. Either way, I was just glad everyone was okay.

We sipped our rum punches and watched the sun set over the horizon, returning to our resort, all in one piece, and each with a story to tell.

Afterword:

Later that night, my back started to hurt more and more, and at around 1:30 in the morning, the pain hit its zenith. I woke up screaming from an incredible shooting pain in my back. My muscles had tensed up and any slight movement made it worse. However painful, I knew I had to stretch out the muscles.

In that moment, I realized the probable reason my back hurt. I used my entire body to try to drag a 250-pound man through violent ocean water and waves…

At 2 a.m., I walked across the resort, not a soul to be seen other than a single security guard walking the grounds. I made my way to the gym and used a foam roller for 45 minutes, even bringing it back to my room.

The pain decreased a bit each day, but would get worse upon sleeping. Two step forwards, one step back. It took about 10 days for the pain to finally fully subside.

As I mentioned above, we’ve all got a story to tell.