Hero Dad Saves Wife and Kids from Waves, Then Dies of Heart Attack

This is the third death following illness on the Passoscuro coast, north of Fiumicino, since the beginning of the bathing season.

The man who lost his life two days ago, on the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, was a fifty-year-old of Ecuadorian origin, James Bolivar, who was on the beach with his wife and two children. According to a reconstruction, the man had felt ill in the water about 50 meters from the shore, on a day characterized by strong currents.

While the family is enjoying a pleasant swim, however, the 15 knots of westerly wind that has risen have agitated the waters. The wind has agitated the sea raising waves and creating a strong current. It was this current that “moved” the father, mother and the two little ones, aged eight and ten, towards deeper waters.

Realizing the depth of the water and that none of them could touch the bottom, the father decides to take his family out of the sea. In fact, helped by the lifeguard, the father carries his children and his wife out.

Alerted by screams, a lifeguard immediately intervened and helped the Ecuadorian: once on shore, resuscitation attempts by qualified paramedics present on site and then by 118 personnel lasted about fifty minutes.

There was nothing to be done and a cardiac arrest was found. The air ambulance, the carabinieri and personnel from the Fregene Local Maritime Office under the jurisdiction of the Rome Port Authority also arrived. In recent weeks, two other deaths of bathers, also of foreign origin, had been recorded on this stretch of coast, always following illness.

“An ambulance and a first aid station authorized to intervene would have been needed, but Passoscuro has nothing. And to think that 30 years ago there was a garrison, in via Torralba. A partial solution could be to have medical jet skis ready to intervene in this stretch of coast, as happens on the Riviera Romagnola.

It is not enough to use the lifeguards' skates, more effective means and medical personnel are needed. The establishments are ready to set up a small water refueling station, with corridor buoys, to allow the passage of this type of rescue vehicle", the position in a note by Stefano Calandra, deputy commissioner of the League in Fiumicino, after the episode.