LEHI, Utah — A Lehi nurse is being called a hero after he was on vacation in the Caribbean and came to the rescue of a woman being attacked by a shark. Chris Carroll was recently honored by the Virgin Islands Governor for his heroism.
According to CommonSpirit Health, Carroll was on a vacation with his wife to St. Croix to celebrate their anniversary when calls for help interrupted their calm afternoon.
Carroll, a Registered Nurse who is the director of surgical services at Holy Cross Hospital - Mountain Point in Lehi, was standing on his second-floor balcony when he heard a lot of commotion on the usually quiet beach below him.
Chris reportedly dashed downstairs and onto the beach when he heard an "ungodly scream" from a woman about 50 yards from the shore. Chris, without hesitation, ran into the water and began swimming out to her.
It wasn't until Carroll got within 10 feet of the woman that he saw a large amount of blood in the water. “I called out to her,” Carroll said, “and when she turned around to look at me, I saw that her left arm was gone. And so at that moment, I knew it was a shark attack."
However, Carroll stated that despite the terrifying circumstances, he wasn't deterred from helping. "I kind of had the urge to swim away," Carroll remembered. "But I just decided at that moment that I wasn't going to leave her out there. And so I swam over. I grabbed her, put her in the tow position, and started swimming her back to shore."
As they approached the beach, other bystanders came into the water to assist in lifting the victim onto the sand. The victim, a 56-year-old from Minnesota, was taken to the hospital but later died from her injuries.
The Virgin Islands Government took notice of Carroll's bravery in the situation and was invited by the Governor to attend a meeting to be honored for his heroism. “We are grateful to the bystanders who acted immediately to render aid and to the first responders who worked urgently and bravely in an effort to save her life,” Virgin Islands Governor Albert Bryan Junior said.
