One man has died and another was hospitalized after they got caught in a strong current near Haulover Beach Monday afternoon, officials said.
Miami-Dade Police officials said a group of six people were at a sandbar when two men started drifting away due to the current around 2 p.m.
A third man jumped into the water to try to rescue them, but a Miami-Dade Fire Rescue boat responded and pulled all three from the water.
Two of the men were rushed to Aventura Medical Center where one of them later died, officials said. The other man was in stable condition.
Andrea Gaybor described the terrifying moments when she and her friends got caught in the strong current.
“I was in it too, so I was trying to save myself too, so I didn't see what was going on behind me," Gaybor said.
She said they were trying to save one of their friends, but the current was just too strong.
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“He said I need help. We tried to swim. We tried to pull him out, but we couldn’t because we were getting dragged with him,” Gaybor said.
Several nearby boaters tried to help, including Walton Goncalves.
“I heard one lady say there’s one guy down that doesn’t know how to swim, so he's missing,” Goncalves said. “That’s the guy I immediately started looking for.”
He said it was fortunate that the water was really clear.
“We were able to see him from the surface. I swam down. I grabbed him. I pulled him up," he said.
Mario Solis also jumped in to help. He was out on the water with his family and happens to be a critical care nurse.
“First thing you have to start doing is CPR,” Solis said. “That’s the most important thing you can do right there at that moment.”
But it might have already been too late.
“He did not respond to the CPR. He did not have a pulse,” Solis said.
Gaybor said the other man who was taken to the hospital in stable condition is the owner of the boat.
Officials haven't released the victim's identity. The incident remains under investigation.
