Fort Walton Beach teens at beach recognize, help possible stroke victim at The Boardwalk

A pair of Fort Walton Beach boys helped a man Wednesday who was having a medical emergency at the Boardwalk on Okaloosa Island. 

The boys had just ordered cold drinks at a beachside snack bar when one of them, 13-year-old Sam King, felt a tap on the shoulder. 

"He said, 'I think I need an ambulance. I think I'm having a stroke,'" Sam said. "He had his words all mixed up and slurred."

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Sam, who completed the Okaloosa's Junior Lifeguard Program earlier this summer, pulled out his cell phone, dialed 911 and told the operator their location and what was happening.

The dispatcher asked him to perform three tests on the victim.

Sam asked him to smile, which the victim could not. He asked him to raise both arms, but he could only raise one. He then asked the man to repeat, "The early bird gets the worm." The only word the man could repeat was worm, Sam said. 

A beach lifeguard showed up and took over the man's medical care until the ambulance arrived. 

While Sam was talking to the dispatcher, 13-year-old Jaicob Williams talked to and reassured the victim. 

"I told him, 'Hold on, we're calling 911,'" Williams said. "It all happened so fast." 

The boys said there were two adults in the vicinity, including the one getting them their drinks, but both appeared to be oblivious to the situation.

The three other boys who were with them also didn't instantly recognize it as a medical emergency. 

One, Grant Chastain, thought the man had come over to complain about how loudly they were talking. He turned around and apologized before realizing what was happening. 

The man, who the boys guessed to be in his late 50s or early 60s, did not appear to be a beachgoer, the boys said. 

"He wasn't clean, he had dirt all over him and dry and cracked skin," said Sam. "Homelessness is a real problem here. I think it's a subject that needs to be more talked about." 

Sam, who would like to be a firefighter someday, said that while the junior lifeguard program didn't directly prepare him for Wednesday's emergency, it did help him to stay calm. 

"This guy needs help so I'm going to do everything I can to help him," he said, describing what was going through his head at moment. "I was pretty calm about it. 

"They told us to do everything you can to help (but that) you can only do what you can do. Before, I probably would have done more and made it worse." 

Sam's mom, Melissa King, is a doctor on Eglin Air Force Base. She wasn't there that day, but she has since talked to both boys, asking them what they would have done if the man had gone unconscious or stopped breathing. They had the right answers. 

"I was impressed that they were able to keep their cool and take the knowledge that they had learned just a couple of weeks prior and actually apply it," she said.