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Quick thinking saves teen swimmer in York River

Four bystanders were instrumental in saving the life of a teenager who nearly drowned at Gloucester Point Beach last Wednesday.

 

Abingdon Fire Chief Herb Austin said that one of the bystanders, Lyn Whitt of Gloucester, “commandeered a boogie board,” swam out to the 16-year-old, and pulled him to shore.

 

Whitt, in a telephone interview, said the boy’s life wouldn’t have been saved without the help of three other people, a woman she only knew as Christina and two men whose names she didn’t know.

 

As the youth leader at Gloucester Point Baptist Church, Whitt said she had taken members of her youth group to the beach for the afternoon, and the teenager had been there throughout the afternoon, as well.

 

Whitt was unaware of any problem, she said, until a man in the water started shouting to people on the shore that the boy was drowning. A man and a woman immediately ran into the water and began swimming out to the young...

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