A man in the middle of a mental health crisis jumped off the west bridge into the low-tide waters of the St. Lucie River near Southwest Martin Downs Boulevard on Wednesday night, setting off a rapid, multi-agency rescue that ended with him airlifted to a hospital with traumatic injuries. Martin County Fire Rescue, the Martin County Sheriff's Office, and the Stuart Police Department all converged on the scene to pull him from the water alive.
According to WPBF, Martin County Fire Rescue responded to reports of an attempted suicide near the bridge, and a spokesperson confirmed the man jumped into the shallow, low-tide water below. Sheriff's deputies and Stuart police officers then searched the river by boat, with sheriff's office personnel ultimately locating the man and transporting him by boat to a nearby boat ramp, the outlet reported.
The bridge itself, which carries State Road 714 across the South Fork of the St. Lucie River between Palm City and Stuart, has a fixed vertical clearance of 55 feet above the water; that figure is clearance, not the length of its span, according to Marinas.com. That stretch of river forms part of Florida's Okeechobee Waterway near Mile Marker 10, with shoals near the bridge.
Marine Units and a Rapid Extraction
The Martin County Sheriff's Office Marine Unit maintains a dedicated fleet, including a 35-foot fire-pump boat and specialized shallow-water craft, patrolling county waterways seven days a week for searches, rescues, and interagency operations, per the agency's own description of the unit. The unit keeps an on-call deputy available for exactly this kind of off-hours emergency marine response.
Once pulled from the water, the man was conscious and breathing as paramedics assisted him, a fire rescue spokesperson said, per the same WPBF account. He was then flown out by the county's LifeStar helicopter to a hospital for treatment of traumatic injuries.
Why the Flight Instead of an Ambulance
LifeStar is Martin County Fire Rescue's aeromedical service, flying out of Witham Field in Stuart aboard an Airbus H130 helicopter staffed around the clock by flight paramedics who also serve as active county firefighters, working alongside contract pilots from Air Methods, according to Vertical Mag. Hoodline has previously reported on the same helicopter program following a rollover crash on I-95 earlier this month.
Martin County has no trauma center of its own, and LifeStar routinely flies patients to HCA Florida Lawnwood Hospital in Fort Pierce. That regional gap in trauma care means even a rescue completed within county lines often ends with a flight out of it.
A Pattern of Water Rescues Tied to Mental Health Crises
This is not the first time Martin County's marine responders have pulled someone from the water mid-crisis. In August 2026, the sheriff's office Marine Unit carried out another high-stakes rescue involving a distraught man in a mental health crisis stranded off the Martin County coastline, working alongside ocean rescue personnel, according to the agency's own account of that incident.
Florida Statute 394.463 is known as the Baker Act.
People in crisis can contact the national 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline; 211 is another helpline option.
The Suicide & Crisis Lifeline can be reached by calling or texting 988; 211 can be reached by dialing 211 or texting a zip code to 898211.
