46-year-old John Franklin Riggs of Maryland swam for five hours to help his four family members when their boat flipped over in a raging storm.
Riggs' sister, father, niece and nephew held onto a 16-foot skiff off of Deal Island, Md. for almost eight hours in a sea of stinging jellyfish while Riggs ventured into unsure waters for aid.
"Our legs were getting stung over and over again by the jellyfish," Riggs' sister Contessa told ABC News. "We had cuts and bruises. My son was crying. Waves kept crashing over our heads."
As his family waited in the water, Riggs barreled over rocks and waves in the inky-black night until he reached the shore. When he finally stood up on the bank, he could hardly walk.
Riggs then shuffled-sometimes crawling-to the closest house in his line of vision. At around 1 a.m. on Wednesday, he knocked on the door.
Angela Byrd was sleeping when her dog barking brought her to attention. She told the Daily Times she opened the front door and saw Riggs standing there, drenched in sea water, barefoot.
"I've been swimming since sundown; I need help," Riggs said.
She then called 911, along with Deal Island Fire Chief Donald Ford.
Emergency workers hurried to the area where the family still held on, wearing life preservers.
"It is lucky they put their life jackets on,"Sgt. Brian Albert of the Maryland Natural Resources Police force said. "The life jackets are what saved their lives."
"We clinged to the side of the boat and got stung by sea nettles in the dark," Emily Horn, Riggs' 9-year-old niece told the Associated Press. "I've never been so happy to see search boats in my life. It took him five hours to swim ashore. He had to stop and grab a crab pot buoy and rest, then swim."
Horn called Riggs, who was a member of a fishing party in the Sharksfin Shoal Light, a "real hero."
But she maintained that the next time the family decides to go on a fishing trip, "I'll go if the water is really shallow."
