HOLLYWOOD, Fla. -- When 16-year-old Cottard Remy was pulled out of the ocean by Hollywood police officers on Memorial Day, Carnide Remy closed her eyes and prayed for her son's life.
"When I was crying out for help, nobody was there, but when I reached out to [the officers], they quickly went in the water," Carnide Remy, of North Miami, said at a ceremony Tuesday honoring four Hollywood police officers. "I prayed, they did their job, and now here my son is."
Two South Florida teens found themselves dragged offshore by rip currents that holiday, and only one survived.
James Jamal Clark, 15, of Hollywood, succumbed to the current and is presumed to have drowned at John U. Lloyd State Park in Dania Beach. His funeral is Saturday.
Cottard Remy was the lucky one.
His brother Richard Remy, 17, says they "went out too far" and started to drown.
"I managed to get out and told [my mother] that my brother is not all right because he doesn't know how to swim," Richard Remy said. "He was panicking so much that he was going back [out to sea] instead of going forward."
Hollywood police officers Shawn Charles, Steve Diefenbacher, Greg Saladino and Jason Thomas were patrolling the sand on ATVs at 7:45 p.m. and came upon a crowd gathered at the water's edge.
Diefenbacher and Thomas dropped their gear and ran into the rough surf.
"I just shed my belt," Diefenbacher said. "Your heart starts pumping and then you realize you're out there."
They carried the unresponsive teen back to shore, where Saladino and Charles performed CPR until Cottard Remy regained consciousness.
The North Miami teen made a full recovery at Memorial Regional Hospital.
"They took the machines off and he was not able to speak or open his eyes yet for two hours," Carnide Remy said. "Later he started asking for me."
She knew her son would be OK when he performed the family handshake.
"He couldn't open his eyes but he did it," said the mother of four who is a music director at her father's church.
Before the teen's family and police colleagues, the four officers received their agency's Life Saving Award from interim Police Chief Vincent Affanato.
Cottard Remy said he had never been so scared in his life.
After thanking the officers who rescued him, the North Miami Senior High sophomore said that he now wants to be a police officer to "save lives."
"It's been rewarding, and this is one of those highlights," Thomas said of his law enforcement career. "Seeing him alive is the true prize."
The Hollywood YMCA has offered to provide free swimming lessons for the teen and his family.
Copyright 2013 - Sun Sentinel
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
