Woman drowns trying to save others as waves break ‘human chain,’ Alabama officials say

A 54-year-old Tennessee woman vacationing in Alabama drowned while trying to save others from deadly gulf shore riptides, outlets report.

Karen Graham left her Memphis-area home for a beach getaway with friends at Fort Morgan, Alabama, but put her own safety aside to try and save others, WKRG reported.

Graham was the first person in a “human chain” trying to save swimmers who had been pulled away from the shore by rough waters. Stretching from the beach into the water, Graham herself was carried away.

“She was the first one in and she was the furthest in the surf so she got tossed around more than anybody else and she just didn’t make it,” Laura Carrigan, Graham’s mother, told the station.

“We’ve just been numb,” she said.

The human chain of nearly 20 people linked together after a 9-year-old was swept into the Gulf of Mexico, the Coast Guard told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Powerful waves broke the chain apart.

Graham’s mother has told other news outlets that her daughter was trying to rescue two young women.

The Coast Guard launched a boat and a helicopter to the scene, but they were called off as nearby boaters were able to pluck everyone from the water, AJC reported.

Graham was found but later died in the hospital, WSFA reported.

“She swallowed water directly in to her lungs. The doctor told her husband she actually died of a heart attack from salt buildup,” Carrigan told the station.

Officials say forming a human chain, though maybe well-intentioned, is not a life-saving strategy they recommend.

“Don’t get me wrong. There have been times when human chains have been successful. It’s extremely dangerous. You’re putting so many more people in danger,” Fort Morgan Fire Rescue Assistant Chief Michael Ludvigsen said, according to WSFA.