Chapter 22

“Coming up next, an exclusive to KXFL, the story of an inspiring and heroic rescue here on the Treasure Coast and the first interview with the brave honeymooners that saved a Florida family with exclusive pictures of the daring rescue. Stay tuned...”

They could hear the live feed coming across Miss Nicoletta’s laptop. “Are you ready?” asked the interviewer.

Andi sat on Paul’s lap and they leaned close to each other to insure they were both picked up by the laptop’s camera. “We’re ready,” said Andi, but she felt anything but ready.

“Thirty seconds,” said a voice at the other end of the connection. Paul snuggled Andi close with a strong arm and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

“Don’t worry about it,” said the interviewer, “you’re a beautiful couple, and Andi, you’re cute as a button.”

“I don’t like being on TV,” whispered Andi.

“How many times have you been on TV?” asked Paul.

“A few times, medical things.” If a medical conference made the Denver news on a slow news day, they always seemed to single out Andi for an interview.

“Ten seconds...”

A beautiful Hispanic woman appeared on their laptop. In the upper corner of the screen was a preview window of what Andi and Paul would look like when the director cut to them. The beauty nodded off screen, then smiled and said, “This is Plata Rodriguez live at the Melbourne Palm Bay Marina with honeymooners, Paul and Adrianna Jarecki. Could you give us a quick rundown of what happened?”

“We were sailing south on the Indian river out of Melbourne where we picked up our friends,” said Paul.

“Our wedding party,” added Andi.

Paul smiled and continued. “We were heading seaward through the Sebastian inlet when we picked up the distress call of a boat breaking up fifteen miles due east. Andi and I are doctors and so is our friend Lucy, and a member of the crew is a pediatric nurse. My brother John and I have lifesaver training from the Coast Guard, so we felt compelled to respond.”

The screen was filled with pictures Gus had taken. “When we got to the scene,” said Andi, “Paul and his brother, and our governess Yi went in the water to pull the people out. When they were on our deck, I treated them for water aspiration, exposure, and exhaustion.”

“Doctor Adrianna...”

“Please, just Andi.”

“Andi, what did you think when Mrs. Garcia went into labor on your boat?”

“I wasn’t horribly worried. Lucy, Dr. Kocis, and I know what to do, and a member of our boat’s crew, Sung-mi, is a pediatric RN, so that baby was in good hands. The very first thing I thought was ‘what a cool place to have a baby!’ Can you imagine the stories that family can tell in the future? My biggest concern was their eight-year-old daughter. She spent a lot of time underwater, and her dad wouldn’t come out of the water until she was safe.”

The video changed from the pictures that Gus took to video taken from the US Coast Guard helicopter as it arrived on scene. It showed Andi’s Dream from the air as the helicopter circled in to assess the situation. Lucy could be clearly seen as she attended to Moyra Garcia. “This is an excellent shot,” said Andi, “Dr. Kocis is directing me to attend to the Garcia daughter who was trapped under the wreckage. Dr. Kocis has a lot of emergency room experience, and she directed the entire medical response, and we think it worked out pretty well.”

On the video, you could see Paul swimming as hard and as fast as he could as he pulled Stefanie onto the swimming deck, which lifted them out of the water. Andi took over treating Stefanie, and she saw Paul roll back into the water, exhausted. Andi stopped talking as she watched Paul gasping and gulping air and the pulmonologist in her rose to the surface and she began worrying.

“It is said that there were other boats closer than you when the distress call was made, yet you are the only boat that responded. What do you have to say to the boats that didn’t respond?”

“We really can’t address anyone else out there except us,” said Paul. “If there were other boats out there, we don’t know if they had their radios on. They have their own reasons for doing what they did. As doctors, as sailors, as Christians, we had to respond.” A picture taken by Coast Guard Warrant Officer Dan Coats came on the screen. It showed the entire crew of Andi’s Dream posing with the newborn Lucius Andrew Garcia. “It was worth it.”

“I wouldn’t have missed it for the world,” said Andi.

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