RENTON, Wash. — Friends of a teen rescued from Lake Washington are holding a candlelight vigil tonight as the boy lies in a coma. He was one of two people saved near Coulon Beach.
They were in an unsupervised area of the lake. One is in stable condition and friends tell us the other—Jonathan Cervantes-- is in Seattle Children's Hospital. They say he’s a Lindbergh High School sophomore in Renton.
Melanie Aquino and Maggie Sturman were there last night when people rushed to help Cervantes and the other boy struggling in the deep water. They witnessed Cervantes' rescue.
"They pulled him up on the dock thing and performed CPR for 15 minutes or so,” Aquino told us.
The rescuers were city lifeguards who just happened to be on a training run outside of the designated swimming area they supervise. With help from the Renton Fire Department's rescue swimmers they grabbed both teens but Cervantes was worse off. He was 30 feet under water for 12 minutes.
"Found him on the first dive. We were out of breath at that point. We had to surface, get air, and then I went down and found him,” Tom Sowers, one of the rescue swimmers, told us last night.
Today firefighters returned to crowded Coulon Beach to debrief the lifeguards. The city of Renton tells us they are all first year guards whose heroic actions have made the city very proud-- and hopefully saved two lives.
"I'm hoping and praying he pulls through,” Sowers said.
We asked the lifeguards, the fire department, and people with the city why the teens were swimming here but nobody knows. There are a number of signs that say it's not safe to swim in this open water.
KIRO
