It was a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon at the beach when tragedy suddenly struck. Who knew that such a peaceful afternoon spent relaxing oceanside on Cape Cod could so quickly take a turn for the worse?
Heidi Filmer-Gallagher and her 15-year-old daughter Tessa were enjoying their day out together. Tessa was digging in the sand on the beach at Nauset Island off Chatham, something all kids do.
But constructing a sandcastle and playing in the sand had never been more dangerous. Today, the beach collapsed around Tessa. The hole literally swallowed her up!
A race to rescue Tessa and save her life quickly launched.
“One of the kids called me and when I answered I could barely hear them I said, ‘What’s going on?’ And they said, ‘Tessa is buried.'”
Her mom rushed to the scene to see for herself what on earth was happening. Emergency rescuers were summoned to help.
As the minutes passed by while waiting, it felt like an eternity.
Heidi believed her daughter had slipped into shock or was simply frozen in fear.
“She was very calm, I think she may have been in shock but she was also cold cuz the sand was wet sand and… would compress and make it hard for her to breathe. It was like cement.”
Even though Mom could see her face, she could tell Tessa was struggling. They needed help immediately!
“Everything was buried up to her neck so she couldn’t breathe. She literally can’t move under this.”
The Chatham Harbormaster, Coast Guard and firefighters arrived but as they worked to try and set her free, the sand kept shifting around her.
They placed a special tube down around Tessa that she could hold on to while protecting her from another cave-in.
Deputy Fire Chief Justin Tavano shared that the situation could’ve been much worse, believe it or not.
“We were fortunate in the regard that her face and airway were above the level of the collapse, she was able to breathe.”
Skip Woods, Chatham’s Assistant Harbormaster, said Tessa was “scared, but well-composed.”
Heidi panicked as she watched what she believed to be her daughter’s life slip away. She wasn’t allowed to help save her daughter and stood helplessly by.
“It was hard for me cause I wanted to help shovel and they wouldn’t let me help. The rescue team was amazing absolutely amazing every single one of them professional experienced.”
No one had any idea that digging a simple hole on the beach could steal a child’s life. Heidi hoped that sharing their story would warn other parents from allowing their children to dig a hole in shifting sand, too.
“We want to make sure this doesn’t happen to somebody else. She was the first to say she’ll never dig another hole.”
Sadly, not everyone is as fortunate as Tessa. Lee Goggin, a 35-year-old Texas father of three who was buried alive by a tunnel he was digging in the sand during a family vacation in Florida on Sunday, died after a brief hospitalization following his rescue.
The dad was trapped under two to three feet of sand. The St. John’s County Fire Rescue team worked to free him at the St. Augustine beach.
But by the time rescuers reached him, he was in cardiac arrest. He was taken to the hospital in critical condition where he eventually passed away.
The family had stopped at the beach before checking into their hotel and visiting DisneyWorld. The dad had dug the tunnel by hand near dunes.
Both frightening incidents serve as a reminder to be careful when digging in the sand.
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
