Cocoa police officers reflect on amazing river rescue

Updated Sunday, 1 a.m.:

 Cocoa police officers who helped rescue family in Indian River will appear on "Good Morning America" at 9 a.m. today.

For Cocoa Police Department Sgt. Mike Dellatorre and his wife, Dora, Friday evening was supposed to be “date night.”

But that all changed when a call came in just before 11 p.m. on Friday stating that a boat had capsized with an adult man, woman and two young children on board.

“I called our boating operator and gave him a heads up which is Sgt. Dellatorre, asked him what he was doing,” said Cpl. Alan Worthy, with the Cocoa Police Department. “He said he was out on a date with his wife; he did say that he would immediately respond.”

And respond he – and she - did with Dellatorre operating a boat that went out to the capsized vessel, near the Hubert H. Humphrey Bridge, a vessel which he said was about 21-25 feet long. Along with him was his wife Dora - whom Worthy said is a trauma nurse -  and  Worthy, who retrieved the keys from the department.

After picking up a witness, they met up with Rush, who was on another boat.

Though three of the victims were safe at that time, there was concern for a 22-month-old girl they feared may have been trapped under the boat.

“We were getting ready to leave and we did hear a cry coming from within the boat …. I could hear her saying something inside.”

Worthy and officer Matthew Rush, along with a good Samaritan, dove into the water as Dellatorre helped direct the men and coordinated a BCSO helicopter on scene, Rush said.

“It was very hard to see. My hand in front of me, could barely see that,” Worthy said. “ …We know she’s under there, we’re just not sure where and it was a very time-consuming process diving in from different points of the boat.”

Fortunately, 44 minutes after they received a call, Rush was able to pull the girl out from under the hull of the overturned recreational boat.

“I located the child, pulled the child down out of the hull of the boat and then up out of the water where the child was turned over to Sgt. Dellatore on the boat,” Rush said.

From there, his wife treated the girl.

“I just made sure she was breathing. She was awake crying, coughing,” said Dora. “I just wrapped her up as much as I could with the life vest and my body heat just kept her awake and comforted her until we got to the shore.”

Rush recognized how fortunate they were to be able to recover the girl, apparently uninjured.

“Usually incidents like this don’t turn out like that. A boating accident that severe with that much damage could have been a lot worse. Air pocket in the boat and a life jacket I would say saved her life.”

As a parent himself, Rush said that gave him a sense of relief.

“Rewarding. It is. I’ve only been in Cocoa for nine years. We’ve seen a lot of things, unfortunately,  that don’t go very well so when you see one like that, I’ll probably never forget that image of her holding her child at Lee Wenner (Park).”

Tammy Bossard, mother of the rescued child, says she was asleep with her 7-month-old daughter Charlotte in her arms.

She woke up in the water.

"I woke up in the water holding Charlotte and I woke up right next to the boat and I saw a hole in the side of the boat and climbed on top and shoved Charlotte up there," Bossard said.

Soon after, her husband also climbed on top of the boat at which point they began hearing their other daughter, crying underneath the boat.

With a positive outcome in place, Dellatorre and his wife are able to look back at the situation with a bit of humor.

“It’s a heck of a date night,” said Mike Dellatorre. “You can ask her (his wife), she said it was good.”

The family had been returning from dinner at Grills Riverside Seafood Deck & Tiki Bar near Pineda Causeway.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission will handle the crash investigation. In addition to the Cocoa Police Department, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office also responded to the incident.

Contact Bonanno at 321-242-3662, cbonanno@floridatoday.com or follow Chris on Twitter @FTChrisBonanno.