Three People Suffer Cardiac Arrest in a Single Day on Gangwon Beach... What Happened?

[Anchor]

Yesterday (July 26), three people were rescued in a state of cardiac arrest and transported to the hospital on a beach in Goseong, Gangwon Province. Because the location was not designated as an official beach, there were no life-guard personnel, which inevitably delayed the response to the accidents.

Here is a report from reporter Jo Jaegeun.

[Reporter]

At around 2:10 PM yesterday on a beach in Goseong, Gangwon Province, five vacationers enjoying the water fell into danger.

Three of them managed to get out on their own, but among the remaining two people in their 50s, one was rescued by safety personnel dispatched from a nearby beach about 500 meters away, and the other was rescued by a Korea Coast Guard helicopter. Both were already in cardiac arrest when rescued.

The beach where the accident occurred is located in front of a condominium operated by the Armed Forces Welfare Corps. It had operated as a beach until last year, but gave up its official beach operation this year.

Banners urging safety were hung and rescue equipment was placed on the beach, but these measures failed to prevent the accident.

With no lifeguards deployed, the response to the accident was inevitably delayed.

[Bae Seong-jin / Safety Team Leader, Hwajinpo Beach: (At the moment of rescue,) they were already in cardiac arrest, so we pulled the person out and loaded them onto a jet ski. When we came ashore, the 119 emergency rescue service happened to arrive, and they performed CPR...]

At around 4:00 PM, at another beach in Goseong, a person in their 20s who was snorkeling was also transported to the hospital in a state of cardiac arrest.

This beach is likewise not designated as an official beach.

[Lee Moo-yeol / Tourism Facilities Team Leader, Goseong County Office: (Designated beaches) have swimming boundary lines set up by us, and water safety personnel control swimmers so they do not go beyond the boundary lines, allowing for immediate response in case a water accident or other incident occurs...]

Over the past three summers, a total of 81 safety accidents occurred at undesignated beaches in Gangwon and Gyeongbuk provinces, resulting in 30 deaths.

(Video reporting: Kim Dae-cheol, Footage provided by: Sokcho Coast Guard and Gangwon Fire Headquarters)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.