SOUTH LAKE TAHOE - A 19-year-old man from Fairfield, Calif., died Tuesday afternoon from an apparent drowning in a couple feet of water at Kiva Beach, authorities said.
William Matthew Lockwood was pronounced dead at Barton Memorial Hospital at 3:41 p.m., roughly an hour after emergency personnel received a report on the possible drowning.
Matthew Wedin, a vocational nurse in Carson City, said he helped pull an unconscious Lockwood from about four feet of water in Taylor Creek and performed chest compressions as a female breathed air into Lockwood's lungs.
"He was totally unconscious," Wedin said. "His whole stomach was filled with water but he had a pulse."
Wedin said the pulse was faint if not gone when paramedics arrived. A CALSTAR helicopter landed at the beach but wasn't loaded with the patient since Lockwood's heart rate wouldn't stabilize, said Brad Piazzo, acting battalion chief at South Lake Tahoe Fire Department.
After some trouble locating Lockwood, emergency personnel loaded him on a marine boat which transported him closer to the beach's trail head and the parking lot.
"From our side of it, we definitely did all we could do," Piazzo said.
El Dorado County sheriff's Coroner Larry Olsen said an autopsy is pending. Olsen said Lockwood had some medical issues but would not elaborate.
"We don't know what caused him to go down and drown but something happened," Olsen said.
"I've never seen CPR performed that long on somebody," said Steve Parris, who worked at the nearby visitors' booth.
The half-moon shaped Lake Tahoe beach was busy with children, artists drawing depictions of Mount Tallac and other beachgoers as attempts were made to save Lockwood's life.
Parris said it was the first drowning at the beach he has heard of in his eight years working in the area.