Doctors had little hope for the survival of Tsilya Murshteyn after beachgoers pulled her from the water at Waikiki Beach.
She was brought to Straub Clinic & Hospital clinging to life.
A witness said the 78-year-old Seattle resident got in trouble about 15 yards off shore, said Honolulu lifeguard Christopher Kam. The incident happened at about 11:30 a.m. Feb. 8.
Kam was working at lifeguard tower 2-C, across Kalakaua Avenue from the Pacific Beach Hotel, when he saw people pointing in Murshteyn’s direction and people pulling her from the water about 60 yards away.
He grabbed an automated external defibrillator and ran over to Murshteyn while radioing that he was responding to a condition five — the direst of conditions, meaning a patient is not breathing and has no pulse.
Reaching Murshteyn’s side, he saw her foaming at the mouth.
"She was dead," Kam said. "She wasn’t breathing. She didn’t have a pulse."
He asked a bystander to start chest compressions while he connected the AED to Murshteyn. The device advised not to shock, which can happen when a person without a pulse does not have a shockable rhythm, and lifeguards continued CPR for about 10 minutes until paramedics took over.
During the resuscitation a crowd gathered as six lifeguards took turns delivering "high-performance CPR," a lifesaving technique using rapid compressions.
"It was intense," said Kam, 34, who has been a city lifeguard since 2011. "We just kept going."
By the time paramedics arrived, Murshteyn had regained a pulse and was breathing weakly.
It was one of hundreds of rescues Honolulu lifeguards perform every year in Waikiki. Last year there were 464 rescues in Waikiki, according to an Ocean Safety spokeswoman. But not all of the victims were left in as grim a condition as Murshteyn.
Murshteyn’s family recently called the city Ocean Safety and Lifeguard Services Division to express their appreciation.
When Murshteyn arrived at Straub, doctors estimated her chance of survival at less than 1 percent, her daughter Marina Shpreyregin said by phone from Seattle.
Shpreyregin flew to Honolulu the next day, and doctors said her mother might never wake up from an coma that was induced to help with recovery. Doctors also told her to be prepared for Murshteyn to have brain damage if she did wake.
Three days after arriving at the hospital, Murshteyn opened her eyes.
"People from the ICU, they came over and they couldn’t believe their eyes," Shpreyregin said.
Murshteyn remained at Straub for 10 days, then flew back to Washington state, where she stayed in another hospital for a week before going home.
Shpreyregin attributed her mother’s nearly full recovery to her being healthy and walking every day before the incident.
Murshteyn said the journey has been difficult and that the water in her lungs cleared up only recently. She continues her daily walks, and her legs are regaining their strength.
"It was very painful for a long time," she said by phone from Seattle. "All my body was like blue and red."
She was so weak after waking, she couldn’t hold a spoon and couldn’t speak above a whisper.
She had numerous broken ribs from the CPR, but she and her family were grateful for the lifeguards’ response.
"They did a good job," Murshteyn said. "If they stopped I couldn’t survive."
Murshteyn, a former school principal from Russia, said that moments before the near-drowning incident, she panicked when she couldn’t touch the seafloor. She recalled swallowing water, then going down.
Murshteyn, who is not a strong swimmer, said she would like to return to Hawaii, which she has visited seven times, and perhaps meet her rescuers.
"I want to see the people who helped me survive," she said.
Besides Kam, the other lifeguards were Chris Zorbo, Christopher Gagnon, Busa Barbour, Joshua Lindstedt and Eliot Beebe. Two paramedics, Kelly Kihe and Julia Gabaylo, helped Murshteyn continue breathing on the way to the hospital.
For Kam, who has participated in "countless" rescues, Murshteyn’s survival seemed like a long shot when she left in the ambulance.
But he was elated to hear about her recovery and said lifeguards usually don’t hear what happens to patients.
"I want to thank her for thanking us," he said. "It keeps the fire burning in us."
