Florida Diver And Mother Who Rescued Him When He Was Swept to Sea: ‘A Miracle’

Six days after his mother launched a rescue mission to save lots of him whereas he was misplaced at sea, Dylan Gartenmayer says he feels fortunate to be alive.

On Jan. 19, Gartenmayer, 22, was free diving close to Key West, Florida, when the Gulf Stream present sucked him into deeper waters. Minutes handed earlier than he resurfaced, and when he did, Gartenmayer discovered himself nearly a mile away from the boat from which he’d been diving.

“I used to be simply getting dragged additional and additional, and I might watch the boat simply slowly getting smaller. It was undoubtedly, ‘OK, that is beginning to get severe right here, for certain,’” he mentioned in an interview on TODAY along with his mom on Jan. 25.

He swam greater than a mile to a channel marker, the place he made a raft of mooring balls to attend for assist. The solar had begun to set, so Gartenmayer, who’s an skilled diver and was carrying a wetsuit, needed to take steps to guard himself.

“Watching that solar drop was type of like making my coronary heart sink,” he mentioned. “I used to be like, ‘Oh, that is going to be a protracted night time out right here.’ That was my concept with the buoys, was tying these collectively and making an attempt to rise up as excessive as I can, preserve slightly heat and put much less of my physique within the water for any potential predators.”

Although the Coast Guard had already begun a seek for him, Gartenmayer’s mom, Tabitha Gartenmayer, launched her personal mission to save lots of him.

“It undoubtedly needed to be a miracle,” she mentioned. “It needed to be God defending him the entire time, our angels above, as a result of for us to land proper on him, you might see it’s a needle in a haystack on the market.

“He was so sensible to get the buoys, to know that his head wasn’t going to be sufficient to search out him,” she mentioned.

In the end, it was the boat piloted by Dylan’s household and associates that pulled him from the water hours after he’d gone lacking.

“Seeing them cease and simply level proper at me, I used to be like, ‘Oh, my God. They see me,’” he recalled.

The Gartenmayers and their unbelievable story went viral this week after a cousin who captured his rescue on her telephone shared the story on TikTok.

“Sundown, climate situations and Dylan’s outfit had been taking part in in opposition to us on this case,” Lt. Cmdr. Elizabeth Tatum, a search and rescue mission coordinator for Coast Guard Sector Key West, not too long ago instructed NBC Information. “However his foresight to lash mooring balls collectively to make him a much bigger goal within the water was sensible.”

Tabitha mentioned getting the decision that her son was lacking nonetheless left her shaken.

“It actually took my breath away,” she mentioned, whereas choking again tears. “I couldn’t even breathe, every thing simply went away.”

“That is undoubtedly a miracle,” she mentioned.

Alex Portée

Alex Portée is a senior trending reporter at TODAY Digital and relies in Los Angeles.

Ali Gostanian contributed.