Gordons Bay Clovelly drowning of dog lover Bev Webb and teenagers battle to save her

The desperate battle to save the life of a devoted dog lover has been revealed after her unconscious body was pulled from the water at a Sydney beauty spot.

Bev Webb, 47, died after apparently having a medical episode at sea in picturesque Gordons Bay at Clovelly on Sydney’s eastern beaches on Monday.

Aleksei Prakhiy, 18, was on the beach when he and his companions saw the Leichhardt woman lying lifeless in the water near nearby rocks and rushed to help.

He and his friend pulled her out of the sea immediately, but she was already unconscious and seemed to have stopped breathing.

“The waves were covering her and she was submerged so we had to move her over a rock,” the teenager from Mascot in eastern Sydney told Daily Mail Australia.

‘There were three teenagers there too, but a boy felt her pulse and tried to see if she was breathing, but there was no sign of life.

“She wasn’t responding at all so we started yelling for people to call the emergency services.”

Aleksei learned basic CPR in school and put it into practice, remembering instructions to use the rhythm of the Bee Gees song Staying Alive to try and keep his heart pumping.

“When we saw that he wasn’t breathing, we knew we needed CPR, so I started doing chest compressions,” he said.

“I was doing it for five minutes or so, I did about three or four rounds. I was trying to remember the song in my head to keep up.

‘It felt surreal at the time. I remembered and was doing it, but it just didn’t work.

Aleksei was still doing chest compressions when help arrived, with police officers and paramedics fighting their way through treacherous rocks to reach the scene.

The 1.95m teenager helped lift Ms Webb’s body from the water’s edge several meters to a flatter area on top of one of the giant boulders so that medics could treat her.

A surfer with first aid training also arrived to help as police on a jetski transferred vital medical equipment from a police boat from nearby Coogee.

Ms Webb, married to her husband Russ and an avid fan of whale watching, is believed to have been snorkelling off the beach with relatives when the tragedy unfolded.

Family members joined the rescue mission but were unable to help save the woman’s life.

“It was shocking,” Aleksei admitted. “This is the first time I have come across a dead body and it is a lot to process.

“At that point it was more of an adrenaline rush when I saw her unconscious and my first instinct was to run and help.”

“When help arrived, I was relieved to be able to deliver to people who knew exactly what to do.”

Friends paid tribute online to Ms Webb, believed to be an area supervisor with Census Australia = as word of the tragedy spread.

Pet rescue group Paws for Thought broke the news to supporters “with a heavy heart” and called her a “beautiful kind lady.”

“We’ve known Bev for over five years,” they posted online. ‘We see and chat with Bev every Saturday and every Sunday at our doggy cafe.

“All of us at Cafe Bones feel such deep sadness and shock.

‘We can’t believe that one of the kindest people I’ve ever met is no longer the smiling, happy and jovial person we see every week on our weekend outings.

“Dog cafe will never be the same without our Bev.”

Shane Manuse, owner of the Leichhardt-based cafe, told Daily Mail Australia that they plan to hold a memorial for her in the coming days.

“She was just a lovely lady who was always adopting older dogs that other people were ignoring and giving them a happier life in their later years,” he said.

“She was always walking her dogs, rain or hail or shine, and making sure everyone else’s dogs were part of the pack.”

“She was just a very loving lady.”

She added: ‘It’s going to be a huge blow to her husband Russ. He was always down here with her and they were always very close.

‘It’s a great loss for him. He will miss her very much.