Laguana Beach city officials on Tuesday night recognized the life-saving efforts of a summer visitor following a traffic collision in South Laguna.
Aysem Kenan, a 19-year-old San Diego resident, was traveling north to Long Beach with a friend on a July day when they decided to stop and spend some time at Table Rock Beach.
When the two walked back to Kenan’s friend’s car, they saw a crowd and discovered the car had mounted the curb in their absence. But the concern quickly turned to an unconscious individual inside a vehicle that had struck their parked car and others.
Kenan, now a sophomore at the University of South Carolina, recalled being “anxious and nervous” at the scene of the collision on July 16, but when Fire Battalion Chief Chip Gilmore arrived and asked if anyone knew CPR, she sprung into action.
She began performing chest compressions as the first responder set up an automated external defibrillator. Relying on training from her middle school days, Kenan said she was trying to remember the words to the song “Stayin’ Alive,” noting that the training taught her that the Bee Gees’ hit featured the appropriate rhythm, or beats per minute, to apply the compressions.
“It was just really scary,” Kenan said in a phone interview Wednesday. “I wouldn’t want to be in that situation again, but I’m glad I was there and able to do something. I would say I was only giving compressions for three to five minutes, and then the ambulance got there really fast. I heard the sirens while I was giving compressions, and then next thing I know, they’re there.”
Kenan, who is double majoring in business management and marketing, added she had never had to use her CPR training until that point.
“It kind of just all came back,” Kenan said. “It was like a fight or flight moment. It was like, no one else knows how, and he needs to be able to put the little patches on for the AED. I could either try to do something or just stand there, and I didn’t want to just be someone standing there if I knew it.”
Bradley Beshear, a former Laguna Beach lifeguard, holds up a certificate for an act of bravery, recognizing an ocean rescue he performed at Fisherman’s Cove this summer.
(Andrew Turner)
Back at school, Kenan watched remotely as her parents, Murat Kenan and Zandra Morris, accepted the Laguna Beach Fire Department’s Award of Heroism on her behalf at the Laguna Beach City Council meeting.
In detailing the incident in council chambers, Administrative Fire Capt. Pat Cary said the man was believed to have suffered a cardiac emergency. Two AED shocks were delivered and the patient’s heart rhythm was restored, before he was transported to a hospital.
Cary said the man involved in the incident survived, but he did not have additional information regarding his condition.
“Thank you for having the courage to step forward,” Cary said. “Thank you for helping a stranger when they needed it most, and thank you for reminding all of us that knowing CPR can truly make the difference between life and death.”
Laguna Beach resident and former lifeguard Bradley Beshear, 20, was also honored for an ocean rescue event at Fisherman’s Cove during a south swell event on June 10.
Marine Safety Chief Kai Bond, who presented Beshear with a certificate of recognition for an act of bravery, summarized the incident. He said a man was caught in a powerful rip current, before Beshear entered the water with swim fins and a flotation device and brought the distressed swimmer back to shore.
Beshear, a senior political science major at UC Irvine, said he was a lifeguard for one summer when he was 16. He expressed gratitude to a neighbor in Boat Canyon for keeping equipment readily available in case of an emergency.
“I didn’t even plan on going in the water,” Beshear said in a phone interview Wednesday. “The swell, it was so gnarly and so dangerous. I brought [the swim fins] down, because I had that past lifeguard training, and I was worried about everyone else who would want to go in the water.
“The flotation device, I’m just so happy it was there, and my neighbor had the foresight to leave that out for the swell and just keep it out year round.”