REDINGTON SHORES, FL --A man who spent almost 5 hours treading water in the Gulf of Mexico Sunday was found alive and is out of the hospital.
The Coast Guard launched a search after 4:00 am Saturday morning for 32-year-old Harold "Joey" Foley. A friend call 911 to report that his friend went swimming around 3:30 am and was missing.
A beachgoer also called the Pinellas Sheriff's Office after seeing Foley waving his arms from the water, officials said.
A Coast Guard Jayhawk helicopter and a 25-foot boat were dispatched to find Foley, who was found treading water about 300 yards west of Redington Beach around 8:30 am.
Worried loved ones could only look on as the search went past daybreak.
"The waves were high," said cousin Ken Wiater during the search, " and I don't know if it was a shark or if he drowned or what.
The choppy waters made the search difficult. Joey’s brother Jeff felt sick when he heard about his missing sibling, "My heart just jumped out of my chest."
But at 8:30, almost 5 hours after Foley first drifted off into the ocean, his family got the news they'd been hoping for.
"They said he's cold but they're taking him to the hospital." Joey's girlfriend and the rest of his loved ones followed him there.
Joey’s mom Trish Smith was relieved and showed us her lighter side, after seeing her son alive and in a hospital bed.
"(I) grabbed a hold of him and hugged him and then told him I was going to kill him! he said, 'why mama, I didn't do anything!'"
Back from the hospital - Joey, the survivor, is still taking it all in.
"I’m real grateful to them. If it weren't for them, there's no way I’d make it back in here. I just wished they would've come a little sooner. "
He had spent almost five hours in the ocean treading water, When he was found he was pale, cold, and appeared to be suffering from hypothermia. He spent a brief time at Palms of Pasadena Hospital, but was back home by the afternoon.
Joey has quite the survival story from these waters, but he says it all still feels like a weird dream.
"I seen a helicopter and a boat and they didn't see me for the longest time so I figured I wasn't coming back in."'
It's not known exactly how Foley drifted off so far into the ocean but the surf was really rough because of the weather and he might have gotten caught in the ocean's currents, officials said.
