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A Copiague swimmer treaded water in the Atlantic Ocean for five hours Monday before he was rescued by two men on a fishing boat, police said.
Sixty-three-year-old Dan Ho’s harrowingly tale began when he decided to take an early morning swim about 5 a.m. at Cedar Beach. Before long, Ho was battling for his life after being swept up by the current, and pulled into open water.
After treading water with no flotation for about five hours, he found a broken fishing pole in the water, tied his shirt to it and waved the shirt in the air in an attempt to alert passing vessels, police said.
Some two and a half miles south of where he entered the water, Ho was spotted by Jim Hohorst of West Islip and Michael Ross of Syosset, aboard a 2007 Albin, “Tropical Soul.” The two boaters pulled Ho aboard the boat and Hohorst called authorities over VHF radio.
Marine Juliet — operated by Officers Robert Jenkins and Bernadette Benjamin — responded and met up with the civilian boat. Ho, conscious and alert, but unable to stand, was brought aboard the police boat and received treatment for hypothermia.
Once ashore, Ho was treated by a Coast Guard medic at the United States Coast Guard Station-Fire Island. He was then taken to Good Samaritan University Hospital in West Islip.
Top photo: Source: Suffolk County Police Department
