Man Drowns At Lighthouse Beach

Man Drowns Attempting To Save Daughter At Lighthouse Beach

Teen Bystander Rescues Child

CHATHAM — A heartbreaking tragedy marred the Labor Day weekend when a man drowned attempting to rescue his 10-year-old daughter, who was being washed out to sea by strong currents off Lighthouse Beach Sunday afternoon.

The father, 46-year-old Thomas McDonald of Groton, Mass., was soon overcome by the strong currents within sight of his daughter. Three bystanders entered the water to try and save the girl; one turned back, another had to be rescued herself, and a third—a 17-year-old off-duty Harwich lifeguard—reached the child and kept her afloat until they both could be rescued.

The tragedy promises to rekindle debate on the town’s management of Lighthouse Beach, which has grown in popularity, but is not guarded by lifeguards (see sidebar).

At around 3 p.m., 17-year-old Tanya O’Donnell of Harwich and West Harrison, N.Y. was on the beach when she noticed people yelling for help. Without any lifesaving equipment, she entered the water. The tide was going out, and with strong northwest winds, there was a strong outbound current from the harbor.

“All I knew is that the man and his daughter were taken away with the currents, and they couldn’t get back,” she said. O’Donnell said she didn’t take time to think about the strong current, and was surprised when she entered the water.

“I didn’t understand how dangerous the waters actually are,” she said. “I had no idea.”

As O’Donnell swam to the man and his daughter, bystanders flagged down Assistant Harbormaster John Summers in the department’s 24-foot patrol boat. Summers had previously been in the area of the new inlet, where he had been called to investigate a report of three kayakers in trouble. Having learned that the kayakers were safely on shore, Summers was near the harbor entrance when he saw people waving on shore, directing him to the sand spit near the extreme southern end of the harbor entrance, near where the shoreline hooks south to become South Beach. Owing in part to the large number of seals there, the location is popular with beachgoers, Harbormaster Stuart Smith said.

O’Donnell said the 10-year-old girl was just managing to stay afloat when she arrived. “She was definitely struggling, but she was doing better than her father,” O’Donnell said. O’Donnell opted to stay with the daughter. The child was remarkably strong, even though her father was obviously in trouble, she said.

“She pulled together. She was a very strong little girl,” O’Donnell said. “She was able to put it aside and focus on staying afloat.”

Summers found the father floating face-down about 100 yards offshore, and single-handedly pulled the man aboard the boat, which took considerable strength, Harbormaster Stuart Smith said. Once McDonald was aboard, Summers spotted O’Donnell in the water, waving her hand. Summers threw O’Donnell a life preserver and said he would return for her, and she signaled that she would be able to hold out until that time.

The patrol boat is equipped with an automatic external defibrillator, and Summers is trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation, but the assistant harbormaster decided to call for an ambulance and get McDonald to shore immediately. Harbormaster Smith said it was a good decision.

“Obviously you can’t do the defibrillation and the CPR and drive the boat at the same time,” Smith said. While Summers was aware that there was a 17-year-old girl in the water, “he had no idea a 10-year-old was with her,” Smith said. Fire department personnel worked to revive McDonald on the trip to Cape Cod Hospital, but he was pronounced dead shortly after their arrival there.

Hearing no replies to his radio calls to Summers, Wharfinger Lee Tallman responded to the scene in the 16-foot patrol boat and began searching for people in the water. It seemed like an impossible task because of the large number of seals in the water, Smith said.

“Everything looked like a head,” he said. “Lee said the only way he saw them was because of the orange life jacket.” About 200 to 300 yards offshore, O’Donnell and the young girl were nearly exhausted, but Tallman managed to get them aboard the patrol boat and bring them to shore. The girl was taken to Cape Cod Hospital, where she was treated and released.

Police are still piecing together the sequence of events during the tragedy, but a witness told police that a bystander, later identified as 45-year-old Lisa Hodovanec of Clifton Park, N.Y. was the first to come to the child’s aid.

“The witness indicated that the incident started with [the 10-year-old girl] being swept out by the tide. Her father then entered the water to assist and began to have trouble himself,” the harbormaster’s incident report reads. “Mrs. Hodovanec, who was in the water already, secured [the youngster] and turned her over to Mr. McDonald. Mr. McDonald was not able to hold on and Mrs. Hodovanec also became fatigued, leading to the separation of the three.”

Assistant Harbormaster Paul Finn, who was patrolling the beach with the department’s ATV, was summoned by bystanders and entered the water with a rescue surfboard to retrieve Hodovanec. When Finn reached her, she was floating on her back in obvious distress. An experienced lifeguard and paramedic, Finn managed to eventually tow Hodovanec to shore. She was exhausted but declined medical treatment.

After helping Tallman vector in on the young girl and O’Donnell, Finn was called 100 yards south on the beach to remove a young man from the water. That bystander also entered the water to try to help, but returned to the beach under his own power.

O’Donnell said she wishes it would have been possible to save Mr. McDonald. “My prayers go out to the family,” she said. “I can’t imagine what they’re going through.”

O’Donnell said she is deeply moved by Mr. McDonald’s effort to save his daughter.

“He saw her in trouble and tried to save her. It’s incredibly admirable that he did that. I have so much respect for him, I can’t even express it,” she said.

9/4/08