Swimmer Rescued by Church Youth Group

A 16-year-old youth was taken by emergency helicopter to a Newhall hospital after nearly drowning in Lake Piru shortly after noon Sunday.

The teen, Jose Gomez, had been swimming near the northwestern shore of the lake when he evidently became tired and began to panic, witnesses said.

“We had just come in with the boat and saw a kid flailing around in the water,” said Camarillo resident Karen Williams, who helped revive Jose after he was brought ashore by a member of a Los Angeles Seventh-day Adventist youth group.

Jose, a Los Angeles resident who is not a member of the group, was accompanying a relative on a weekend outing organized by the church.

Members of the church youth group, who stayed on the lake after Jose was taken to Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital, said the youth had returned from jogging and waded into the lake to cool off.

Jose was treated at the hospital and released Sunday afternoon.