Rushabh Patel was 28 years old, with a wife and an 18-month-old daughter, when he decided to jump into the water without thinking twice. It was a Sunday in May, near Newport Pagnell, at a spot known as The Beach. Two people were drowning and he swam toward them.
He saved them both. But his heart could not withstand it. He suffered cardiac arrest in the water and was airlifted to Milton Keynes University Hospital, where he died days later despite medical efforts.
His story did not end there. Thanks to the donation of his organs, at least five more people are still alive today. His brother Aman summed it up this way: “A true hero never dies, he lives on in the lives he saved”. His death adds to an already alarming figure: 18 people have died in the water during these weeks of extreme heat in the United Kingdom.
