LI Man Rescued After Treading Water For 5 Hours In Atlantic Ocean

CEDAR BEACH, NY — A Copiague man was rescued after treading water in the Atlantic Ocean for more than five hours Monday morning, Suffolk County police said.

At about 5 a.m., the 63-year-old man went swimming at Cedar Beach in Babylon and was pulled out by the current into open water.

After treading water with no flotation for hours, he found a broken fishing pole in the water, tied his shirt to it and waved the shirt in the air in an attempt to notify passing vessels of his presence.

About 2 1/2 miles south of where he entered the water, the man was spotted by Jim Hohorst, of West Islip, and Michael Ross, of Syosset, aboard a 2007 Albin Tropical Soul.

Hohorst and Ross pulled the man onto the boat and Hohorst made a call over VHF radio.

Marine Juliet, operated by Officer Robert Jenkins and Officer Bernadette Benjamin, then responded to the call and met the civilian boat and transferred the man, who was conscious and alert but unable to stand, aboard and rendered aid for hypothermia.

The man was then brought ashore to the United States Coast Guard Station-Fire Island where he was treated by a Coast Guard medic and then transported by West Islip Fire Department ambulance to Good Samaritan University Hospital in West Islip, police said.