Vacationing Vermont Paramedic Saves Drowning Woman at Maine Beach

Earlier this week we brought you a story about a man at Long Sands Beach in York, Maine who ran into the water to pull a drowning woman out. Not only did he pull her from the water, he also did CPR for nearly half hour until rescue crews made it to the scene to take over.

When the rescue crews arrived on the scene, the woman was back to breathing on her own. This story took the state of Maine by storm and left many people asking who this beach savior was.

Fast forward to today and we finally have some more answers regarding who this hero of a man is. As it turns out, according to WGME 13, the man just so happens to be a paramedic from Vermont who was at Long Sands Beach vacationing with his family over the Memorial Day weekend.

The news station reported that the man, Erik Hanson of Vermont, was at the beach when he saw the woman in distress. When he got the woman out of the water, she was not breathing and did not have a pulse. He immediately jumped in life-saving-paramedic-mode.

Hanson told the news station,

"All of a sudden I saw two arms come up in the air, and then a head. It looked like they were trying to pull on something, and I realized they were trying to pull someone out of the ocean. I took off sprinting towards them, talked to my wife and said, 'Get the kids away from here, they don't need to see this.'"

"In this specific instance, it was hands-only CPR, and that's kind of the thing they're teaching now, and the importance of that is, I can't understate how important that is. Anybody can do it. Anybody can learn how to do CPR, and it's what will save lives."

From all of us here in Maine, thank you to this 'hero from away' who didn't hesitate to step up when he was needed in such a critical time. Thank you for saving a life, Erik Hanson!