US visitor dies after swimming in North Sound

(CNS): A 54-year-old man who was visiting the Cayman Islands from the United States died Friday afternoon following a trip on a private boat to the North Sound. At about 3:30pm, the emergency services responded to a report that a person was in distress at a dock on Raleigh Quay in West Bay.

The man had been swimming in the sea, but when he returned to the boat, he began to experience difficulties and lost consciousness. People aboard the vessel conducted CPR on the man as the boat made its way to shore.

The Cayman Islands Coast Guard met the boat mid-journey. CICG officers boarded the private vessel and provided medical assistance while the CICG vessel escorted it to the dock at Raleigh Quay, where EMS and Cayman Islands Fire Service officers were waiting.

The man was transferred from the boat to an ambulance and taken to the Cayman Islands Hospital, where he was subsequently pronounced dead. He is the second person to lose his life in local waters this year.