Mayuko Nakayama is seen after receiving a letter of appreciation from Ryoji Hayashi, director of the Karatsu Coast Guard Office, right, in Karatsu, Saga Prefecture. (Mainichi/Yoshiyuki Mineshita)

       KARATSU, Saga -- A homemaker with experience in synchronized swimming received a letter of appreciation from the local coast guard here on Aug. 6 for rescuing a high school student who was drowning at a beach in Itoshima, Fukuoka Prefecture.

       Mayuko Nakayama, a 37-year-old housewife in the city of Fukuoka's Higashi Ward who performed synchronized swimming in high school, reportedly pulled up a 17-year-old boy who had sunk to the bottom of the sea about 2 meters below the surface, and carried him to the shore after securing his airway.

       Ryoji Hayashi, director of the Karatsu Coast Guard Office, praised Nakayama, saying, "She saved the life of a promising high school student with her courage, quick and accurate judgment, and outstanding rescue skills."

       The male student had come to Keya Beach from the Fukuoka prefectural city of Ogori on July 23, and was playing with a swim tube with two high school friends about 40 meters offshore.

       At around 10:50 a.m., Nakayama, who was with her mother and two sons, aged 5 and 3, heard a cry from someone saying "my friend is drowning" coming from about 10 meters away. She looked up and raced to the scene.

       The boy's friend told Nakayama, "He's right below here," and she saw a black figure in the water. She took off her straw hat and sunglasses, dove down, grabbed the swimsuit of the boy, who was lying on his face, and pulled him up with all her might, thinking that if she didn't lift him up at once, she would never make it.

       She was able to pull him out, but the second-year high school boy was unconscious. Recalling the rescue training she had received as a part-time pool lifeguard in her high school days, Nakayama placed the boy facing up, put her hand on his chin to secure his airway, and "swam as hard as she could" to carry him to the beach while holding his back.

       Nakayama handed him over to an ambulance dispatched by the city's fire department, which had received a 119 call from a beach house. The boy was transported by emergency medical helicopter to hospital and admitted there. He was discharged on July 31. He reportedly thanked those who rescued his life.

       "When I heard that he had survived, I was so relieved and shed tears," said Nakayama. She received a letter of appreciation from Hayashi, and commented, "Thanks to synchronized swimming, which I continued from the fifth grade of elementary school to the first year of high school, I was able to swim in a vertical position."

       (Japanese original by Yoshiyuki Mineshita, Karatsu Local Bureau)

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