mike helfide and jeff boyles are just relieved this rescue had such a happy outcome and that they reached meena in the nick of time. we re in california, but it s beyond the hollywood ending. when the dust settles and we still go to bed at night and hit the pillow, we re still human. if you rescue somebody, that day was a lot better than if you were unable to rescue somebody. coming up, trapped under a collapsed stage and struggling to survive. and later, when a man refuses to leave his sinking boat, he and the rescuer risk getting pulled under. when caught on camera: nick of time continues. d a heart attack here in this gym. i started getting really nauseous and i felt like i was going to pass out. luckily there was an emt working out. he suspected it was a heart attack. he gave me a bayer aspirin. bayer aspirin was a lifesaver for me. i don t ever want to have another heart attack.
ambulance and only later do rescuers learn that he escapes without injury. it s extremely remarkable that he didn t at least have some broken ribs or a broken skull or it didn t the sheer weight of it crush his chest cavity to where he couldn t even breathe period. even meena can t believe his luck. i kept asking them in the hospital is there sand in my lungs. no sand. everything checked out. perfectly healthy. my oxygen levels were normal. from now on, he ll follow the lifeguard s advice, no digging holes deeper than the height of your knee. a few days after being pulled from the sand, meena gets to meet some of the people who saved his life. this is brian and mike. these are the two lifeguards that were on the scene first. i was really thankful just for everybody that helped. the lifeguards and everything.
3rd, 2011, a nightmare is unfolding below this idyllic beach. 17-year-old matt meena is trapped underneath six feet of sand when the hole he s digging collapses in on him. alerted by meena s cousins, lifeguards, including captain mike helfide, rush to his aid. witnesses capture the rescue attempt on camera. when i first came on scene, we had two lifeguards digging and then four or five, matt s cousins and friends that he was with. at that point we started getting more volunteers. helfide organizes the group into three concentric circles surrounding the spot where meena was last seen. the first rescuers are inside moving sand, trying to locate the patient. the second ring takes the sand from the rescuers and move it further out. the third ring is to take the sand and disperse it further out. as word ripples out that a
weight to bear, but there s no oxygen down that deep either. once you are under more to four to six minutes, brain death starts to occur. by ten minutes your chance of survival is very limited. my expectations is this is a body recovery at that point. just horrifying to think of that. but lifeguards, firefighters, police, and the volunteers continue to work feverishly. i tried to pull a couple of them out of the hole after about 20 minutes of digging, but they just wouldn t come out. they were in there and they were going to pull him out. after close to 30 minutes of frantic digging, finally news comes from the center of the giant pit. rescuers can see the top of meena s head. that s a long time though. and unbelievably, it looks like he s alive. he was taking slow, deep, gasping breaths, and his ears were blue, which indicated to us that we were literally, literally within a minute or two of perhaps losing brain cells and matt dying.
that were on the scene first. i was really thankful just for everybody that helped. the lifeguards and everything. mike helfide and jeff boyles are just relieved this rescue had such a happy outcome and that they reached meena in the nick of time. we re in california, but it s beyond the hollywood ending. when the dust settles and we still go to bed at night and hit the pillow, we re still human. if you rescue somebody, that day was a lot better than if you were unable to rescue somebody. coming up, trapped under a collapsed stage and struggling to survive. and later, when a man refuses to leave his sinking boat, he and the rescuer risk getting pulled under. when caught on camera: nick of time continues. embarrassed about my skin. [ designer ] enough of just covering up my moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. i decided enough is enough.