Protocols don’t allow Coast Guard rescuers to decide that a person is dead just by looking at them. According to the protocols, the times they can skip doing CPR on a person is if they are obviously dead (decapitated, charred, have heart, lungs, or liver separated from the rest of the body, or have rigor mortis which sets in about 2 hours after death at normal temperatures, later if the body is cold) OR if they are more than 30 minutes away from medical help.
If the Coast Guard spokeswoman was correct that the Coast Guard swimmers pulled 3 people out of the water, then they never did rescue Fuddy - instead, two Coast Guard rescuers passed her by, and one claimed to the media that he did it because the protocols required it of him. But that’s not what the protocols say, and the Coast Guard rescue swimmers’ guide gives instructions on how to rescue an unresponsive person from the water.
The rescue swimmer say she was unresponsive and without a pulse?
“A U.S. Coast Guard rescue swimmer says Fuddy had no pulse when he reached her to hoist her to safety.”
That might classify as dead.
I'll try to put myself in their shoes, and I would say bugger the instructions, there's a woman here with her eyes wide open, her jaw slack and her head tilted over, with only the lifevest keeping her face out of the water. She's pale as a ghost and not moving. Her hands are floating like she's a corpse. So what am I going to do? Try to get her out of the water first so someone can try to revive an obviously dead person? Or do I attend to the nearest living person who is tired and treading water, weighed down because he/she is fully dressed? I think I know the answer to that one. There are times when it's better for the living to ignore the manual and get on with it.
'Protocols' are surely guidelines; rigidly enforced, you end up removing the human element, and I can't see that being a good idea.