Beachgoers Form Human Chain to Save Boy

Today (March 13) is good Samaritan Day, a perfect time to recognize the beach goers who saved a little New Zealand boy the other day.   The 12-year-old says he's thankful to be alive after a group of strangers formed a human chain to rescue him when a wave swept him out to sea.

"They saved my life," Josh McQuoid told One News. "If it wasn't for them I'd be dead."

Josh was playing with a friend, on the shore of a beach in Napier on Sunday when he got caught in the rough surf.  The swells dragged him about 500 feet along the shore, pulling him underwater and tossing him around like a washing machine,

A German tourist and several police officers immediately rushed to help but they couldn’t pull him back in.

Watching the struggle, some 12 bystanders then banded together and formed a line extending from the shore into the surf, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

A police officer was finally able to grab onto the boy, the human chain then passed the child to shore.

Josh was "unresponsive", and rushed to a local hospital, but he quickly recovered and was later discharged. He is just fine and Greatful that 12 people decided to be Good Samaritans!