A 34-year-old Lawrence man attempting to swim from shore to a nearby boat had to be rescued Sunday afternoon from Clinton Lake.

The man was taken by ambulance to Lawrence Memorial Hospital after bystanders performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on him, said Aaron Henrichs, a natural resource officer with the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks. The man was alive when medics took him to LMH, Henrichs said.

Officers said the man was at a family gathering with six other people in Bloomington Park, on the lake’s southwestern side near the Clinton Lake Museum.

He was attempting to swim from the shore to a pontoon boat that had other family members on it, Henrichs said. The man did not make it; he dipped below the water and bystanders had to pull him back to shore.

Someone from the boat called 911 at 2:32 p.m., officers said.

Quinn Long, of Lawrence, said he was about to put a sailboat in the water when he heard people yelling to call 911 from several hundred feet away.

Long said he ran toward the man’s family members, and saw him near the edge of the water. A woman who identified herself as a nurse began to perform CPR.

The man did vomit a few times, Long said.

“It didn’t look real good,” he said.

Medics and officers arrived, including a volunteer crew from Clarion Springs Emergency Medical Service, two off-duty firefighters, medics with two Lawrence-Douglas County Fire and Medical ambulances, and officers with the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Division Chief Joe Hoelscher, of Fire and Medical, said the agency’s first ambulance arrived at 2:44 p.m. after other medics and officers were on the scene.

Henrichs said the agencies were still investigating what caused the man to disappear below the water. The man’s name was not released, and an update on his condition was not available Sunday night from the sheriff’s office.