Tourist drowns at Lake Mead

Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2005 | 9:36 a.m.

A 37-year-old man from Mexico on vacation in Southern Nevada drowned Monday at Lake Mead in six feet of water.

A Metro Police dispatcher called the National Park Service at 12:04 p.m. and rangers arrived at Boulder Beach in two minutes, Park Service spokeswoman Roxanne Dey said.

The rangers found a visitor performing CPR on the man, Enereo Diaz-Sanchez.

Park Service rangers continued to try to revive the man for 40 minutes, Dey said.

Diaz-Sanchez was at the lake with his wife, children and friends, a group of about 15 people, Dey said. She said she did not know where in Mexico the man and his family lived.

As Diaz-Sanchez swam about 75 feet from shore shortly before noon, he yelled to those on the beach that he was having cramps, Dey said.

Witnesses told park rangers that the man had slipped under water.

Two bystanders, a husband and wife from California, jumped into the water and brought Diaz-Sanchez to shore, Dey said.

The couple began CPR immediately until rangers arrived.

The presumed cause of death is drowning, but the coroner's office will determine the final cause of his death.

Diaz-Sanchez was swimming in an area of the lake about six feet deep and was not wearing a life jacket, Dey said.

Park rangers said that they wanted to stress the importance of wearing life jackets while swimming or boating on Lake Mead or Lake Mohave.

Swimming in open bodies of water is a much different experience that swimming in a backyard swimming pool, Dey said.

"When you cramp up or get tired in a pool you can grab onto the edge," Dey said.

In a lake or other open body of water there is nothing to grab onto if a problem arises, she said.

There have been fewer drownings at Lake Mead this year, Dey said.

Diaz-Sanchez was the third drowning victim, compared to seven at this same time last year.