A Coast Guard member who was a Carnival cruise ship passenger said the man was close to death.
Richard Hoefle told WWL-TV that James Grimes “had nothing left to give.”
Grimes fell off the ship the day before Thanksgiving and was in the ocean for roughly 20 hours.
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A Coast Guard member who saved the Carnival Valor cruise ship passenger said he rescued the 28-year-old at a critical time, according to a report.
The passenger, James Grimes, said that he was having drinks on the ship, which was on its way to Cozumel, Mexico, from New Orleans on November 23, when suddenly he was in the ocean. Grimes told ABC’s “Good Morning America that he fought for his life for 20 hours.
On Thanksgiving morning, a Coast Guard tanker saw Grimes and rescued him.
“Mr. Grimes had nothing left. He had no energy. He had nothing left to give,” U.S. Coast Guard Aviation Survival technician Richard Hoefle told WWL-TV. “My best guess is that he had between a minute and 30 seconds left before we lost him completely.”
“Once I handed [the sling] to him, he just collapsed into it. He didn’t have, he couldn’t talk to me. I was able to get his name and the cruise ship he had fallen off of,” Hoefle said, per the news station.
Prior to being rescued, Grimes said he encountered sea creatures, including one he described as having a fin, in the vast open water. He also said he ate a plank of bamboo.
“It gave some type of flavor in my mouth other than saltwater,” Grimes told ABC. “I was never accepting that this is it — this is going to be the end of my life.”
Hoefle said that Grimes’ rescue “was one in a million,” per WWL-TV. The news station noted that dozens of people fall off ships each year and are never rescued.
“He just had an incredible will to survive,” Hoefle told the outlet. “And he did whatever he had to do.”
Man Who Fell Off Cruise Ship Had a Minute or Less to Live: Report
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