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Teen Critical After 40 Minutes Under Water

A lifeguard reacts as rescuers pull a 13-year-old girl from waters off Carson Beach in South Boston.

BOSTON, MA – A 13-year-old girl swimming with two young friends off Carson Beach was near death last night after she spent nearly 40 minutes under the water before being pulled to the surface in a massive rescue effort, authorities said.

Divers found the girl beneath a pier that stretches out to sea from Mother’s Rest, a pavilion along the South Boston beach, officials said.

She was found about 35 feet from shore in roughly 10 feet of water by firefighter Robert Doyle, a member of the department dive team assigned to Ladder 19 in South Boston, spokesman Steve MacDonald said.

Screams of the girl’s friends – ages 8 and 11 – brought help to the scene, police said.

The two girls and the victim, all friends from the Harbor Point Projects, were swimming near the pier at about 4:30 p.m. when she disappeared beneath the water.

A witness who was on his cell phone said he heard the girls screaming near the water but had no idea what was unfolding a few feet away.

“I didn’t think anything of it. I just thought it was kids playing. Who hears that and thinks tragedy? Next thing I saw was cruisers pulling up,” said the witness, who requested anonymity.

Witnesses said at least two passers-by dove into the water in their own rescue bids, but were unable to find the girl.

Several state troopers from the nearby South Boston barracks responded, along with a member of the state police dive team and a Boston Police Department Harbor Patrol boat. Meanwhile, lifeguards stationed at the Carson Beach Bathhouse ran hundreds of yards to the scene and dove into the water to join the search.

But it was Doyle, swimming under the pier, who found her, MacDonald said.

A source said when she emerged the girl was not breathing, but had a faint pulse, which emergency workers did not believe would hold. Doyle passed her off to a Boston EMS crew and she was rushed to the pediatric unit of Boston Medical Center, where she was on life support last night. Her two friends were also taken to the hospital, but were unharmed.

The girl’s plight and her struggle for life haunted the man who had passed near Mother’s Rest just after the girls screamed.

“If only they’d screamed ‘Help,’ I would have stripped and dove in there,” he said, wearing a sweatshirt, shorts and tennis shoes. “I was so close, I know I could have found her. They never screamed ‘Help.’ ”

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