The Jersey Shore lifeguard who was impaled by an umbrella in a freak accident is back at the beach — and itching to return to her stand.
Last month, 18-year-old Alex Kaus suffered an injury when a strong gust of wind knocked her off her lifeguard post, causing the pointed end of a beach umbrella to pierce her arm, just missing a major artery.
Three weeks after this painful incident, Kaus has returned to the boardwalk. She’s not back to lifeguarding just yet—as her severe injury continues to heal—but is checking beach badges. Despite her condition, she is glad to be close to the ocean and with her colleagues once more.
“Physically, I’m pretty good,” Kaus, who wears a red bandana over her left shoulder to cover the injury, told NJ.com.
“I’m definitely one of those people who’s just like, ‘It’s all good,’” the Robbinsville native said,
A student at the University of Wisconsin, Kaus is eagerly waiting for a medical clearance that will allow her to resume her duties as a lifeguard, although she doesn’t yet know when that will be.
“I hope to have at least like two-ish weeks on the stand before I have to go back to school,” Kaus said hopefully.
The lifeguard was standing on top of an Asbury Park lifeguard stand last month while setting up the umbrella to beat the overwhelming heat that ripped through the region.
It is her second year on the job, and she was following standard protocol as she set up the umbrella before the freak accident.
“Two inches to the left, it would have gone through her body,” Joe Bongiovanni, the head of Asbury Park’s beach operations, said after the incident.
“I was very lucky where it hit me because it missed every major blood vessel and it just went through my muscles,” Kaus recalled afterwards.
