In the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of St. Augustine Beach, Florida, Kelly A. Wood, 42, was with two young teens on May 23, 2020, when she was carried away from shore by a rip current. Carnegie Hero D. Roderick Boothe, a 50-year-old compliance director of Mableton, Georgia, entered the ocean to retrieve his 9-year-old son, who, once safely in wadable water told his father than he heard others shouting for help from farther out. Boothe swam 150 feet through rough waves to Wood, who submerged when he was about 10 feet away. He dived and pulled Wood to the surface. Boothe circled his arm around her chest and, towing her, struggled to return to shore. Once he was in wadable water, he picked Wood up and carried her to the beach, where others assisted. Wood was not breathing and bystanders began CPR on the beach, where she was revived. Boothe, nearly exhausted, struggled to catch his breath. Both Wood and Boothe recovered.
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