ATLANTA — A 12-year-old boy from metro Atlanta, Rashad Williams, is now on life support at a Pensacola hospital after being caught in a rip current that killed two others last week.
Rashad's mother, Roshanda Williams, is desperately trying to raise money to bring him to an Atlanta hospital.
Two others from metro Atlanta drowned in that same rip current on April 6; Bryce Brooks, 16, and youth basketball coach Charles “Chuck” Johnson.
Rashad and his friend, Braylon Jones, were jumping in and out of the surf, swimming and running and playing for two hours, according to Braylon’s mother, Addie, who was watching them from the beach.
Suddenly, both of them were pulled under water in the powerful rip current.
“My son said, next thing you know, the current came and knocked them off their feet, and when they got knocked off their feet, they just went down, down in the water,” Addie said Wednesday night.
She is a close friend of Rashad’s mother and had driven both boys to Johnson Beach National Seashore, on Perdido Key just outside of Pensacola, on April 4, for a couple of days of fun. They were planning to drive back home on the 7th.
The rip current pulled several swimmers under.
Addie said Braylon told her that in those moments, he doesn’t know how he was able to fight the current and come back up for air.
“They were just like, fighting to get back up, fighting to breathe, he said it was just so scary,” she explained.
Addie said that two people from the beach reached Braylon ahead of her and helped him to safety. But no one could find Rashad.
About 10 minutes later, Addie said they spotted Rashad floating and unresponsive. After about 10 more minutes, she said, rescuers spotted Bryce Brooks and Chuck Johnson, who were also unresponsive.
Addie said people who were at the beach took turns doing CPR on all three, keeping the chest compressions going without interruption as the Escambia County Fire and Rescue crews were on their way.
“It was a lot of screaming, a lot of crying,” Addie said. “People were lined up to help give the heart compressions” on them. “Rashad came out of the water without a heart beat, his heart had basically stopped in the water.”
Rashad was the only one of the three they were able to revive. He is now in intensive care.
“He’s on a ventilator, he’s on a machine, basically in a comatose state, they say he’s not breathing on his own,” Addie said, adding that Rashad’s mother is not giving up on him.
Addie is trying to help Rashad’s mother raise money online, for the specially-equipped helicopter he needs to fly home to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite.
Roshanda is a single mother of three sons, she’s lost her job and has no insurance, Addie said. She doesn’t drive, and found a ride to rush from Atlanta to Pensacola to be with Rashad.
They’re waiting on Medicaid to tell them if any amount of the costs of the helicopter transport will be covered.
Meanwhile, Addie is blaming herself for what happened.
“It’s very heartbreaking, just to know that I took him on a trip with me. And we had been having fun. I’m still in shock, unbelievable,” she said.
Rashad’s mother, Addie said, is not giving up on hope that she’ll be able to bring him back home soon and see him recover.