Moores save drowning child, foil purse-snatching in Mexico

Friday, February 25, 2011

Early February was cold and snowy in Vernon County, but some local residents were on a yearly vacation in Mexico that turned out to be quite different from any of the other trips they had taken to Rincon de Guayabitos.

Local doctors Ted and Candice Moore have been going to the small resort community about 90 minutes north of Puerto Vallarta on the western coast of Mexico for several years. In years past other friends had joined them and this year they were accompanied by Tom and Sally Thorpe.

The Moores like to spend their time on the beach near their hotel. Candice often likes to prop a canvas up on an umbrella covered table and paint while Ted takes advantage of the shade to read. According to Sally Thorpe, that peaceful routine was interrupted on Sunday, Feb. 13 by an event that put the Moore's medical skills to the test.

It was warm and sunny that afternoon; the beach was crowded. Mexicans, Americans, Canadians and people of other nationalities crowded the beach. Many of them were family groups out for an afternoon of fun.

While relaxing at their table, the Moore's noticed a commotion taking place among one family nearby. About 30 family members had surrounded a father and child. It seems that the child had wandered into the surf and had been swept out without anyone noticing. The father had pulled the child's lifeless body from the sea and was trying what he could to revive the child. "The family had not a clue what to do," said Sally Thorpe.

The Moores, according to Tom Thorpe, "immediately went into action." They quickly ascertained that the child had no pulse and was not breathing. Moore, who was kneeling, turned the small boy over and put him on his leg where he began light compressions to force the water out of the child's lungs. Candice kept checking for a pulse. Once the water came up, Moore started CPR.

The family was gathered around; "the mother was hysterical," but the Moores calmly went about the business at hand. After one or two minutes "the baby started breathing and a pulse was found." In a letter to the Daily Mail, Tom Thorpe said, "This baby would not have lived without the professionalism of the Drs. Ted and Candice Moore."

Though the child had breathed in sea water and experienced some mild convulsions during the ordeal, it was a just a short time before he made "a little sputter and opened his eyes," Sally said. Paramedics arrived on the scene about six minutes later and took the boy to a hospital. The family hurriedly packed their belongings and followed.

That's enough vacation excitement for just about anyone. But there's more! Some time after the drowning incident, Ted was again reading on the beach. He had watched a man approach an older woman who was lying on the beach. The man took a seat at a table where the woman's things were and began to eyeball her purse. Then he took the purse and fled.

Moore told the woman and together they pursued the man yelling at him. The man left the beach and went up some stairs and some people finally tackled him and the woman recovered her property. Moore and the woman returned to the beach. The purse snatcher was taken away. The rest of the vacation was relatively uneventful, but what could be expected after such things happening in just a few days time.

Their vacation over, it was finally time for the trip home, but before the Moores and Thorpes left Mexico, hotel personnel informed them that the boy was just fine. The two couples returned to the winter of Vernon County, where Thorpe pointed out in his letter that the Moores exemplify "the type of professional doctors we have in Nevada." He added, "next time you see Drs. Ted and Candice Moore -- give them 'a nice job Doc' -- 'job well done.'"

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